REPUBLICANS 


STON    STEARN 


o 

CD 


LIBRARY 

OF  THB 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

Gl  FT    OF 

t^fQ^h. 

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LIFE  OF  PRINCE  OTTO  VON   BISMARCK 

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ALEXANDER    HAMILTON. 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

OR 

THE   REAL  AND   IDEAL 
IN  POLITICS 


BY 
FRANK  PRESTON  STEARNS 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  REAL  AND  IDEAL  IN  LITERATURE,"  "SKETCHES  OF  CONCORD 

AND  APPLEDORE,"  "MODERN  ENGLISH  PROSE  WRITERS," 

"THE  LIFE  OF  BISMARCK,"  ETC. 


•T>«-J 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


OF 


PHILADELPHIA   AND   LONDON 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT     COMPANY 

1904 


Copyright,  1904 
BY  J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT  COMPANY 


Published  June,  190k 


WITH  THE 

COMPLIMENTS  OF  THE  AITTHOB 


Electrotyped  and  Printed 
By  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Philadelphia,  U.S  A. 


TO   THE   MEMORY 
OF 

DAVID  ATWOOD  WASSON 

THE   PIONEER 

IN  AMERICAN    POLITICAL 

REFORM 


172770 


"  Away  with  this  hurrahing  of 
the  masses;  and  let  us  have  each 
man's  vote  on  his  own  conscience." 

EMERSON 


PREFACE 

¥ 

THERE  is  a  common  misconception  that  re- 
publicanism and  democracy  are  convertible 
terms.  The  difference  can  best  be  explained, 
perhaps,  by  examples.  A  late  writer  on  poli- 
tics spoke  of  Venice  and  Rome  as  democracies ; 
but  Venice  was  never  a  democracy,  at  least 
within  historical  times ;  and  Rome  only  became 
a  democracy  during  the  ten  years  while  Caesar 
was  in  Gaul.  Likewise,  Holland  was  a  repub- 
lic in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  but  it  did  not  be- 
come a  democracy  until  it  was  revolutionized 
by  Pichegru.  Great  Britain  is  now  more  dem- 
ocratic in  some  respects  than  the  United  States 
of  America;  that  is,  public  opinion  acts  upon 
the  government  there  more  quickly  and  forci- 
bly than  it  does  here.  Republicanism  is  a  form, 
and  democracy  would  seem  to  be  more  like  a 
political  condition.  All  that  one  can  say  of  a 
government  is  that  it  is  more  or  less  democratic. 
Even  in  Germany  there  is  universal  suffrage, 
and  the  people  control  the  financial  budget. 
Republicanism  means  that  the  chief  magistrate 
of  a  nation  is  an  elective  and  not  a  hereditary 
ruler. 

5 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

RATIONAL   REPUBLICANISM  .....................      11 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON  ........................    107 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  ...........................    141 

THE  WINTER  OF  1861  .........................    184 

SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION  ....................    196 

THE  ETHICS  OF  WAR  ..........................   223 

APPENDIX  ...................................   24Q 

INDEX    .  ----   257 


TRUE   REPUBLICANISM 


J>*. 

Or 

f    UNIVERSITY  | 

OF 

Ik 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

IN  the  preamble  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  it  says: 

"  We,  The  People  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to 
form  a  more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insure 
domestic  tranquillity,  provide  for  the  common  defense, 
promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings 
of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity,  do  ordain 
and  establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States 
of  America." 

This  is  the  grandest  sentence  ever  yet  in- 
scribed in  America,  and  perhaps  the  grandest 
of  the  past  hundred  years.  It  was  the  first  full 
and  explicit  statement  of  the  true  object  of 
government  by  the  freely  chosen  delegates  of 
a  whole  people;  and  it  is  as  much  in  advance 
of  the  English  "  Magna  Charta"  as  the  nine- 
teenth century  is  in  advance  of  the  thirteenth. 
Who  was  the  author  of  it  remains  in  doubt,  but 
it  is  likely  that  a  number  of  great  minds  were 
concerned  in  its  composition.  It  was  a  general 

ii 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

consensus  of  the  best  political  opinion  of  the 
time,  and  marks  an  epoch  in  history  like  Abe- 
lard's  teaching  of  reason  and  Luther's  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible.  What  might  have  been 
added  to  it,  but  which  would  not  have  been 
suited  to  the  occasion,  was,  that  without  gov- 
ernmental oversight  progress  in  civilization 
would  not  be  possible. 

So  much  having  been  conceded,  I  think  it 
will  be  admitted  that  the  true  course  by  which 
to  attain  this  end, — that  is,  the  best  possible 
government, — should  not  be  an  a  priori,  dog- 
matic, or  empirical  method,  but  by  inductive 
reasoning  and  the  practical  adaptation  of 
means  to  ends.  This  is  the  strong  point  made 
by  Macaulay  in  his  controversy  with  John 
Stuart  Mill,  who  has  the  credit  of  introducing 
the  inductive  principle  in  logic,  but  who  did  not 
make  use  of  it  sufficiently  in  practice.  Macau- 
lay  says : 

"  How,  then,  are  we  to  arrive  at  just  conclusions 
on  a  subject  so  important  to  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind? Surely  by  that  method  which,  in  every  experi- 
mental science  to  which  it  has  been  applied,  has  sig- 
nally increased  the  power  and  knowledge  of  our 
species;  by  that  method  for  which  our  new  philoso- 
phers would  substitute  quibbles  scarcely  worthy  of  the 
barbarous  respondents  and  opponents  of  the  Middle 

12 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

Ages ;  by  the  method  of  induction ;  by  observing  the 
present  state  of  the  world;  by  assiduously  studying 
the  history  of  past  ages ;  by  sifting  the  evidence  of 
facts;  by  carefully  combining  and  contrasting  those 
which  are  authentic;  by  generalizing  with  judgment 
and  diffidence;  by  perpetually  bringing  the  theory 
which  we  have  constructed  to  the  test  of  new  facts; 
by  correcting  or  altogether  abandoning  it  according 
as  those  new  facts  prove  it  to  be  partially  or  funda- 
mentally unsound.  Proceeding  thus, — patiently,  dili- 
gently, candidly, — we  may  hope  to  form  a  system  as 
far  inferior  in  pretension  to  that  which  we  have  been 
examining  and  as  far  superior  to  it  in  real  utility  as 
the  prescriptions  of  a  great  physician,  varying  with 
every  malady  and  with  the  constitution  of  every  pa- 
tient, to  the  pill  of  the  advertising  quack  which  is  to 
cure  all  human  beings,  in  all  climates,  of 'all  diseases." 

This  is  the  Baconian  method,  and  the 
method  by  which  the  English  constitution, 
generally  speaking,  has  been  developed.  Such 
principles  also  were  in  the  minds  of  the  f  ramers 
of  our  national  Constitution,  but  they  found 
themselves  obliged  to  compromise  with  existing 
local  conditions  as  well  as  with  the  revolution- 
ary spirit  of  the  age.  Their  compromise  on  the 
slavery  question — which  ultimately  resulted  in 
the  abolition  of  slavery — was  not  more  a  neces- 
sity of  the  times  than  that  they  should  leave  to 

13 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

the  several  States  to  determine  the  exact  man- 
ner in  which  representatives  to  Congress  should 
be  elected.  In  many  of  the  States  there  were 
restrictions  on  the  right  of  suffrage  which  have 
since  lapsed  into  abeyance;  in  others  it  was 
only  qualified  by  age  and  sex.  It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  Washington,  Hamilton,  and  the 
Federalists  generally  would  have  preferred  an 
educational  suffrage,  and  perhaps  also  a  small 
property  qualification, — like  the  five-pound 
franchise  in  England;  but  any  attempt  to 
carry  through  such  a  measure  would  have  been 
to  risk  the  success  of  their  enterprise.  It  is 
asserted  by  good  historians  that  a  large  ma- 
jority in  the  American  Colonies  were  opposed 
to  the  formation  of  a  strong  central  govern- 
ment, and  it  was  only  the  authority  of  Wash- 
ington and  the  arguments  of  Hamilton  that 
persuaded  them  into  it.  The  ratification  of  the 
Constitution  was  a  close  shave,  and  the  absence 
of  Jefferson  at  the  court  of  France  was  a  most 
fortunate  omen  for  the  future  of  America. 

Another  inherent  weakness  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  can  be  traced  to  the 
same  source.  It  would  have  been  most  hazard- 
ous to  have  asserted  the  superiority  of  the 
federal  government  over  the  several  State  gov- 
ernments, as  President  Lincoln  asserted  it  in 

14 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

1861 ;  and  the  fiction  of  State  sovereignty, 
which  helped  so  much  to  encourage  secession, 
lasted  until  that  time.  If  civil  war  should  arise 
in  one  of  the  States, — and  a  war  of  races  is  by 
no  means  improbable  in  some  Southern  States, 
—the  President  would  have  no  constitutional 
right  to  suppress  it  unless  called  upon  to  do  so 
by  the  governor  of  the  State,  who  may  have 
reasons  for  not  doing  so.  In  fact,  an  intermit- 
tent civil  war,  like  that  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
now  goes  on  in  certain  sections  of  the  country, 
—notably  in  Kentucky, — where  there  are  said 
to  be  more  than  a  thousand  manslayers  still 
living ;  and  this  disorder,  which  is  a  disgrace  to 
the  whole  nation,  the  federal  government  has 
no  power  to  repress.  Neither  is  it  able  to  re- 
press the  Southern  outrages  to  negroes  or  their 
lynching,  which,  even  when  well  deserved,  is 
contrary  to  the  law  of  the  land. 

MODERN  DEMOCRACY 

Aristotle,  in  his  "  Politics,"  distinguishes  six 
different  forms  of  government,  three  of  which 
he  considers  legitimate  and  the  other  three  per- 
versions and  abnormal.  His  three  legitimate 
forms  are  monarchy,  aristocracy,  and  constitu- 
tional government;  and  the  perversions  of 
these  are  tyranny,  oligarchy,  and  democracy. 

is 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

Thus  we  find  the  opposition  already  noticed 
between  democracy  and  the  Constitution  predi- 
cated in  Aristotle's  theorem  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago,  and  it  was  this  opposition 
which  finally  led  to  the  War  of  Secession.* 
Dr.  Francia's  government  of  Paraguay  was  a 
modern  instance  of  what  the  Greeks  called 
tyranny;  and  the  Tweed  ring  of  New  York 
City  will  suffice  for  a  modern  case  of  oli- 
garchy ;  but  of  a  pure  democracy  of  the  unre- 
stricted government  by  the  people  there  is  only 
one  conspicuous  example  in  modern  history,— 
between  the  imprisonment  of  :Louis  XVI.  and 
the  execution  of  Robespierre.  The  govern- 
ment of  Athens  during  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries  B.C.  was  more  democratic  than  that 
of  any  existing  state  or  nation,  and  was  quite 
as  successful  as  any  ancient  government  ex- 
cepting the  Roman;  but  it  was  not  a  case  of 
pure  democracy.  It  was  limited  in  several 
ways  by  the  constitution  of  Cleisthenes,  and 
menial  offices  in  Athens  were  almost  entirely 
performed  by  slaves;  so  that  portion  of  the 
population  did  not  illustrate  the  principle  that 
the  right  of  government  depends  on  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed.  Rome  became  a  democ- 

*See   Von    Hoist's    Verfassung   und   Demokritie   in    V.   8. 
Amerika. 

16 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

racy  in  60  B.C.,  only  to  become  an  imperialism 
fifteen  years  later. 

The  free  cities  of  the  Middle  Ages  have 
often  been  celebrated  as  the  nurseries  of 
modern  civilization;  and  this  is  mainly  true,— 
especially  in  regard  to  the  arts  and  sciences,— 
but  the  monarchical  courts  were  chiefly  instru- 
mental in  developing  courteous  manners  and  a 
high  standard  of  personal  honor.*  The  insti- 
tution of  the  Knights  of  the  Garter  should 
always  be  remembered  in  this  connection.  The 
free  cities  of  Europe,  however,  were  not 
properly  democratic,  but  served  to  illustrate 
the  true  difference  between  democracy  and  re- 
publicanism. In  many  of  them  there  was  a 
titled  nobility  who  served  as  military  pro- 
tectors. Generally  the  citizens  were  divided 
into  guilds, — trades  and  professions, — to  which 
even  the  nobility  belonged;  and  it  was  only 
those  that  were  incorporated  in  these  guilds 
who  could  take  part  in  municipal  proceedings. 
This,  of  course,  included  a  large  majority  of 
the  inhabitants;  but  in  order  to  belong  to  a 
guild  a  man  was  required  to  have  a 'fairly  good 
character  and  a  definite  occupation :  that  float- 
ing population  which  so  often  decides  the  re- 

*  See  Guizot's  "  History  of  Civilization." 
2  17 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

suits  of  an  election  in  modern  cities  was  ex- 
cluded from  it.  In  Florence,  which  may  he 
termed  the  centre  of  mediaeval  culture,  no  per- 
son was  allowed  to  vote  for  chief  magistrate 
who  had  not  attained  the  age  of  thirty;  and 
similar  restrictions  prevailed  in  many  other 
cities.  There  were  no  free  cities  in  Great 
Britain,  hut  the  charters  of  London,  Oxford, 
Edinburgh,  and  other  large  places  gave  them 
an  independence  nearly  equal  to  that  of 
Bruges  and  Nuremberg.  It  was  from  this 
English 'municipal  freedom  that  the  republi- 
canism of  the  American  Colonies  was  origi- 
nally derived. 

When  the  free  cities  of  Italy,  France,  and 
Spain  lost  their  independence  through  the  cen- 
tralizing tendencies  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries,  civilization  in  those  countries 
steadily  declined,  and  this  decline  was  not 
arrested  until  the  revolution  of  1789  startled 
the  upper  classes  into  a  new  sense  of  their  re- 
sponsibility to  society  as  a  whole. 

What  we  now  call  democracy  was  unknown 
in  the  eighteenth  century  except  to  the  philoso- 
phers and  historians.  It  was  natural  that  the 
early  settlements  of  America  should  have  a 
democratic  character,  because  the  hardships  of 

pioneer  life  place  all  persons  very  nearly  on  the 

18 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

same  level.  The  New  England  town-meeting 
resembled  the  Roman  comitia,  and  like  that  was 
composed  of  attendants  who  were  both  farmers 
and  soldiers.*  Such  was  the  original  basis  of 
our  government.  As  towns  grew  up  into 
cities,  the  English  municipal  system  was 
adopted,  and  the  general  court  of  legislation 
was  modelled  on  the  English  House  of  Com- 
mons. Class  differences  sprang  up  with  the 
development  of  mercantile  and  professional 
life.  Servants  no  longer  ate  at  the  same  tables 
as  their  employers;  and  a  natural  aristocracy 
arose,  which  was  everywhere  respected.  In  the 
country  village  the  justice  of  the  peace  or 
esquire  ruled  with  a  patriarchal  sway;  as  did 
the  village  clergyman  within  the  precincts  of 
the  church.  It  was  this  healthy  and  unconven- 
tional social  order  which  produced  the  great 
leaders  in  the  War  of  Independence,  who  in 
style  and  character,  at  least,  were  superior  to 
the  leaders  in  our  Civil  War. 

It  was  impossible,  however,  for  American 
life  to  remain  independent  of  European  influ- 
ences. Society  in  Europe  was  verging  towards 
a  fall,  and  the  narrow  mediaeval  basis  could 
not  sustain  its  elaborate  modern  superstructure 

•Indian  fighters,  at  least. 
19 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

any  longer.  Locke  may  not  have  perceived 
this,  but  the  spirit  of  the  age  was  in  him,  and 
he  represented  the  most  advanced  thought  of 
his  time.  Every  great  philosopher  bears  a 
definite  relation  to  the  age  in  which  he  lives. 
Plato  taught  self-examination,  which  was  the 
first  step  to  a  higher  morality ;  Aristotle  taught 
mental  analysis,  which  is  the  first  step  in  the 
investigation  of  external  nature.  In  an  epoch 
of  general  unbelief  Kant  restored  the  faith  of 
his  countrymen  in  God  and  immortality  by  his 
"  Critique  of  Pure  Reason."  Locke's  spe- 
cialty, as  is  well  known,  was  the  understanding, 
or  what  is  called  common  sense,  as  against  cus- 
tom and  tradition.  By  limiting  his  philosophy 
to  this  he  made  it  more  effective, — for  it  was 
just  what  the  world  needed.  It  was  essentially 
a  puritan  philosophy  and  readily  accepted  by 
enterprising  scholars  in  America  like  Franklin 
and  Jefferson;  but  in  France  it  was  caught 
up  by  a  host  of  amateur  cosmopolitan  writers, 
who  were  neither  statesmen  nor  had  ever  made 
a  serious  study  of  the  subject.  Chief  among 
these  was  Rousseau,  whose  "  Social  Compact" 
became  popular  from  the  clearness  of  its  style 
and  the  celebrity  of  its  author  as  a  writer  of 
fiction.  The  social  compact  which  Rousseau 
imagined  between  the  government  and  the 

20 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

governed  had  never  taken  place  in  France,  and 
the  first  sentence  of  his  book  is  a  case  of  errone- 
ous logic,  but  it  answered  its  purpose  and  be- 
came a  revolutionary  gospel  to  the  French 
people.  It  was  from  these  two  sources,  but 
especially  from  Locke,  that  Jefferson  drew  the 
material  for  his  political  writings,  so  that  even 
a  close  resemblance  is  apparent  between  many 
of  his  sentences  and  those  of  his  predecessors. 
Locke  discovers  the  foundation  of  all  politi- 
cal rights  in  a  primitive  state  of  society  where 
all  persons  are  on  a  basis  of  absolute  equality. 
In  his  treatise  on  civil  government  he  says: 

"  To  understand  political  power  aright  and  derive 
it  from  its  original,  we  must  consider  what  estate 
all  men  are  naturally  in,  and  that  is,  a  state  of  per- 
fect freedom  to  order  their  actions,  and  dispose  of 
their  possessions  and  persons  as  they  think  fit,  within 
the  bounds  of  the  law  of  Nature,  without  asking  leave 
or  depending  upon  the  will  of  any  other  man. 

"  A  state  also  of  equality,  wherein  all  the  power 
and  jurisdiction  is  reciprocal,  no  one  having  more  than 
another;  there  being  nothing  more  evident  than  that 
creatures  of  the  same  species  and  rank,  promiscuously 
born  to  all  the  same  advantages  of  Nature,  and  the 
use  of  the  same  faculties  should  also  be  equal  one 
amongst  another,  etc."  * 

*  Book  II.,  chap.  ii. 
21 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

This  is  not  profoundly  convincing  to  the 
modern  investigator,  and  seems  barely  more 
rational  than  the  theory  of  Locke's  opponent, 
the  "learned  Sir  Robert  Filmer,"  who  based 
the  divine  rights  of  kings  on  the  authority  of 
Adam  over  Cain  and  Abel.  It  is,  in  fact,  like 
attempting  to  build  a  mountain  out  of  pebbles 
on  the  seashore;  but  the  truth  is  that  in  those 
times,  1650  to  1700,  philosophers  did  not  pos- 
sess the  material  for  speculations  in  this  line. 
Their  knowledge  of  antiquity  was  limited  to 
Herodotus,  and  their  information  concerning 
barbarous  races  to  the  extravagant  tales  of  sea 
captains.  We  can  safely  presume  now  that  no 
such  state  of  society  as  Locke  imagines  ever 
existed;  and,  in  fact,  he  contradicts  his  own 
hypothesis  in  a  manner,  as  is  evident  from  his 
conclusion  of  the  statement  above  quoted : 

"...  there  being  nothing  more  evident  than  that 
creatures  of  the  same  species  and  rank  should  also 
be  equal  one  amongst  another,  without  subordina- 
tion or  subjection,  unless  the  lord  and  master  of 
them  all  should,  by  any  manifest  declaration  of  his 
will,  set  one  above  another,  and  confer  on  him,  by 
an  evident  and  clear  appointment,  an  undoubted 
right  to  dominion  and  sovereignty." 

The  deeper  we  dive  into  the  recesses  of  his- 
tory and  the  more  accurate  our  knowledge  of 

22 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

the  aborigines  in  Africa,  America,  and  Poly- 
nesia, the  plainer  and  clearer  it  appears  that  in 
the  most  primitive  forms  of  society  might  was 
essentially  right,  and  that  even  in  the  more 
favored  races,  like  the  Semitic  and  Aryan,  the 
earliest  governments  are  the  most  arbitrary  and 
despotic.  Among  the  American  Indians,  when 
the  chief  dies  or  becomes  superannuated,  it  is 
the  greatest  bully,  the  brave  who  combines 
domineering  qualities  in  the  highest  degree, 
who  succeeds  to  his  position;  and  Homer  has 
given  a  vivid  picture  of  the  truculent,  bloody 
manner  in  which  Ulysses  regained  the  au- 
thority which  had  lapsed  by  his  long  absence 
from  Ithaca.  All  the  evidence  we  have  tends 
to  show  that  ideas  of  right  and  justice  were 
developed  slowly  and  gradually.  "History," 
says  Hegel,  "  is  the  evolution  of  human  free- 
dom;" and  if  we  may  presume  that  govern- 
ment becomes  more  just,  enlightened,  and 
humane  with  the  progress  of  civilization  the 
converse  of  this  must  also  be  true.  The  British 
empire  is  an  improvement  on  the  Roman,  the 
Roman  on  the  Babylonian,  and  so  on  in  a  de- 
scending series. 

This  is  according  to  Darwinian  evolution, 
and  if  we  are  to  believe  in  Darwinism  it  is 
easy  to  imagine  a  prehistoric  condition  of  the 

23 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

human  race,  in  which  they  herded  together  like 
deer  in  the  woods  and  enjoyed  the  equality  of 
gregarious  animals.  This  is  a  natural  induc- 
tion, and  significant  to  us  because  it  suggests 
that  even  the  attempt  of  social  theorists  to  re- 
duce society  to  a  dead  level  has  an  injurious 
moral  effect.  Go  to  Chicago,  Paris,  or  Berlin, 
and  you  will  find  almost  invariably  that  the 
socialistic  agitators  are  bad  workmen  and  idle, 
dissipated  fellows.  They  have  no  idea  of 
"plain  living  and  high  thinking,"  but  wish  to 
acquire  the  power  of  which  they  seek  to  deprive 
others.  The  differentiation  of  classes  begins 
with  civilization,  and  although  it  frequently 
happens  that  this  does  injustice,  for  the  ad- 
vantages of  wealth  and  culture  often  fall  to 
those  who  do  not  deserve  them,  it  is  the 
struggle  against  this  injustice  which  makes 
the  poetry  of  life  and  stimulates  character.  It 
is  inequality  which  makes  life  interesting;  but 
the  socialistic  Garden  of  Eden  would  be  stale, 
flat,  and  uninspiring.  Socialism,  moreover, 
would  place  all  honest  and  industrious  persons 
at  the  mercy  of  the  idle  and  vicious. 
Locke  says  again  (Chapter  IV.) : 

"  The  natural  liberty  of  man  is  to  be  free  from  any 
superior  power  on  earth,  and  not  to  be  under  the  will 

24 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

or  legislative  authority  of  man,  but  to  have  only  the 
law  of  Nature  for  his  rule." 

This  is  certainly  more  Utopian  than  ra- 
tional; and  yet  the  Law  of  Nature,  as  it  has 
been  called,  has  exercised  a  tremendous  influ- 
ence on  the  destinies  of  mankind.  It  has 
served  as  the  watchword  of  five  revolutions  in 
America  and  more  than  twice  as  many  in 
Europe.  It  has  never  been  accepted  as  a  legal 
principle  in  England  and  the  United  States, 
but  it  forms  a  large  ingredient  in  the  Code 
Napoleon,  which  has  become  the  law  for  all  the 
Latin  races.  It  influenced  the  philosophy  of 
Emerson  as  much  as  the  politics  of  Jefferson ; 
and  the  scepticism  of  the  eighteenth  century 
was  quite  as  much  due  to  Locke  as  to  Hume. 
As  a  reactionary  principle  against  the  hard- 
ened conventionalism  of  European  classes  it 
has  had  great  value,  and  still  continues  to  be 
useful;  but  in  America  it  overturned  the 
healthy,  sensible  order  of  society,  and  has 
caused  a  great  deal  of  mischief.  It  is  a  prin- 
ciple of  disintegration,  and  no  enduring  struc- 
ture can  be  founded  on  it.  Webster  stated  the 
case  more  clearly  and  simply  in  his  reply  to 
Hayne. 

"  When  a  government  becomes  intolerable,  revolu- 
tion is  in  order." 

25 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

Rousseau  says  at  the  outset:  "  Man  is  born 
free,  and  yet  is  universally  enslaved,"  which  is 
rather  a  rash  statement,  for  children  can  hardly 
be  called  free  until  they  become  of  age,  and  at 
that  time  a  large  proportion  of  the  French 
peasantry  were  independent  landowners. 

Jefferson  was  more  prudent  when  he  wrote : 

"  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all 
men  are  created  equal ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights;  that  among 
these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness ; 
that  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted 
among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed." 

I  have  no  intention  to  disparage  this  noble 
declaration;  it  served  to  weld  together  the 
sympathies  of  a  widely  scattered  population, 
and  to  unite  millions  in  a  common  cause,  but  we 
should  also  consider  its  original  purpose.  The 
Declaration  of  Independence  is  a  revolution- 
ary document,  and  if  accepted  otherwise  it  will 
continue  to  create  revolutions  long  after  they 
are  necessary  for  the  public  good.  There  can 
be  nothing  worse  for  a  state  than  the  revolu- 
tionary habit, — as  in  Rome  during  the  life  of 
Cicero,  and  in  the  Spanish- American  republics. 

26 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

Jefferson  himself  was  a  revolutionary  char- 
acter. He  wished  to  change  and  remodel 
everything,  but  his  changes  were  not  always 
improvements.  He  wrote  his  letters  in  a  dif- 
ferent fashion  from  other  people,  and  one 
which  has  never  heen  adopted.  He  invented  a 
serpentine  form  of  fence  which  was  supposed 
to  economize  material,  but  this  advantage  was 
more  than  balanced  by  the  waste  of  time  and 
space.  Still  more  characteristic  was  the  fire- 
tongs  he  had  made  after  the  fashion  of  sugar- 
tongs,  because  he  considered  the  common  form 
too  complicated.  He  objected  to  the  building 
of  forts  for  the  protection  of  our  seaports, 
because  he  considered  them  part  of  the  ma- 
chinery of  despotism.  He  was  opposed  to  the 
federal  constitution,  and,  if  he  had  not  been 
in  France  at  that  time,  would  probably  have 
prevented  its  adoption.  He  encouraged  rebel- 
lion against  the  national  government  and 
sowed  the  seeds  of  secession. 

Jefferson's  declaration  of  rights  has  been 
condensed  by  common  parlance  to  the  expres- 
sion "all  men  are  created  free  and  equal;"  a 
formula  the  value  of  which  depends  on  the 
meaning  we  attach  to  the  words  "free  and 
equal."  The  freedom  of  the  savage  who 
forces  his  will  upon  others  without  considera- 

27 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

tion — and  this  is  the  true  test  of  a  barbarous 
nature — is  a  worse  condition  than  African 
slavery.  The  way  in  which  democratic  politi- 
cians usually  explain  the  phrase  is  that  every 
man  has  a  right  to  do  as  he  pleases  so  long  as 
he  does  not  interfere  with  the  rights  of  other 
men.  This  would  seem  to  be  fair,  and  yet  it  is 
not  sufficiently  disinterested.  Something  must 
be  sacrificed  for  the  welfare  of  the  community 
as  a  whole,  and  the  mere  payment  of  taxes  is 
not  sufficient  for  this.  A  state  founded  on 
this  principle  would  be  merely  an  aggregate  of 
individuals  with  a  constant  tendency  to  sepa- 
ration and  isolation.  It  might  finally  become 
a  sort  of  Chinese  republic  in  which  there  would 
be  neither  art,  science,  nor  progress.  The 
Greek  myth  that  the  walls  of  Thebes  were 
built  to  music  from  Apollo's  lyre  has  a  fine 
significance.  It  is  only  through  a  self -forget- 
ful harmony  that  great  deeds  are  accomplished 
and  nations  grow  to  greatness.  It  is  in  the 
subordination  of  the  individual  to  the  state, 
and  to  the  common  good,  that  men  achieve  the 
highest  distinction. 

Sumner  said  in  the  Senate,  "  The  service  of 
God  is  perfect  freedom;"  and  it  is  true  that 
we  can  only  attain  a  high  degree  of  freedom 
through  submission  to  universal  law.  In  the 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

first  place,  there  are  the  laws  of  the  land, 
which  every  one  is  bound  to  obey;  then  there 
is  the  unwritten  code  of  honor,  which  subsists 
between  all  gentlemen  and  self-respecting  per- 
sons; then  there  is  the  etiquette  of  domestic 
life,  by  which  alone  society  can  be  made  har- 
monious and  agreeable;  and,  finally,  we  have 
our  consciences  to  contend  with,  and  the  prob- 
lems it  presents  to  us  are  often  perplexing 
enough.  It  is  only  after  a  man  has  mastered 
these  various  rules,  and  learned  them  by  heart 
as  it  were,  so  that  they  become  a  second  nature 
to  him,  that  in  a  higher  sense  he  can  properly 
be  called  free.  Otherwise  he  will  be  continu- 
ally stumbling  into  pitfalls  and  running  up 
against  wire  fences;  and  it  will  be  seen  from 
this  that  a  man's  objective  or  external  freedom 
is  in  an  inverse  ratio  to  his  internal  or  spiritual 
freedom.  Now  this  internal  freedom  consti- 
tutes what  we  call  happiness.  Socrates  in  his 
prison-cell  was  more  free  than  his  accusers  in 
the  court  of  the  Areopagus. 

Is  not  political  liberty,  however,  negative 
rather  than  positive?  The  right  of  suffrage, 
of  habeas  corpus,  and  of  changing  government 
officers  is  positive;  but,  on  the  whole,  political 
liberty  consists  in  not  being  interfered  with  by 

government  in  an  arbitrary  or  unreasonable 

29 


^s, 

OF  THE  A 

f    UNIVERSITY   ) 

OF 
'-.i,   .         _.,\fe. 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

manner.  The  influence  which  each  one  of  us 
exercises  in  our  right  of  suffrage  is  small,  but 
the  power  of  the  most  liberal  government  that 
can  be  imagined  is  always  great.  Coercion  is 
inseparable  from  any  form  of  government; 
and  those  who  are  coerced  are  most  likely  to 
feel  that  they  have  been  tyrannized  over.  Jef- 
ferson himself  was  the  nearest  approach  to  a 
tyrant  of  any  of  our  presidents.  His  embargo 
law  was  directed  not  more  against  the  British 
than  against  the  interests  of  New  England, 
which  was  the  centre  of  opposition  to  him ;  and 
it  was  much  more  successful  in  the  latter  case 
than  in  the  former.  As  Webster  said,  "  thou- 
sands of  families  were  reduced  from  affluence 
to  poverty"  by  that  law.  The  nullifiers  of 
South  Carolina  looked  upon  President  Jackson 
as  a  tyrant,  and  the  free-state  settlers  in  Kan- 
sas held  the  same  opinion  of  President  Pierce. 
The  thousand  and  one  persons  who  were  ar- 
rested and  imprisoned  by  Seward,  between 
1861  and  1865,  for  expressing  disloyal  senti- 
ments, certainly  did  not  exemplify  the  natural 
right  to  liberty.  The  thousands  of  drafted 
men  in  our  Civil  War  could  hardly  be  said  to 
have  possessed  a  right  to  their  own  lives,  and 
their  pursuit  of  the  enemy  could  not  certainly 
be  called  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  No  doubt 

30 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

Wilkes  Booth  considered  himself  the  peer  of 
William  Tell,  and  that  President  Lincoln  was 
one  of  the  worst  of  tyrants,  instead  of  a  just 
and  magnanimous  ruler.  Such  is  not  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  affairs ;  but  these  instances  show 
that  political  freedom  is  not  absolute  but  rela- 
tive, and  depends  as  much  on  wise  and  just 
administration  as  on  public  safeguards.* 

If  all  men  are  born  equal,  it  is  natural  to  con- 
clude that  they  should  remain  equal.  This  con- 
clusion emphasizes  the  brotherhood  of  man  in 
an  unmistakable  manner,  and  was  very  popu- 
lar with  politicians  of  both  parties  until  the 
slavery  conflict  appeared  on  the  horizon  like  a 
black  tornado.  The  test  came  when  the  con- 
clusion was  applied  to  negroes;  but  the  anti- 
slavery  reformers  eagerly  caught  it  up  and 
supported  it  by  Jefferson's  famous  declaration 
that  there  was  no  attribute  of  God  that  would 
take  part  with  the  master  against  his  slaves. 
"  Glittering  generalities,"  cried  Rufus  Choate, 
sarcastically;  but  Abraham  Lincoln  told  the 
exact  truth  when  he  said  in  the  Douglas  and 
Lincoln  debates: 

"  I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument  in- 
tended to  include  all  men ;  but  they  did  not  intend  to 

*  Appendix  A. 
31 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

declare  all  men  equal  in  all  respects.  They  did  not 
mean  to  say  all  were  equal  in  color,  size,  intellect, 
moral  development,  or  social  capacity.  They  defined 
with  tolerable  distinctness  in  what  respects  they  did 
consider  all  men  created  equal — equal  with  '  certain 
inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  This  they  said,  and  this 
they  meant.  They  did  not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious 
untruth  that  all  were  then  actually  enjoying  that 
equality,  nor  yet  that  they  were  about  to  confer  it 
immediately  upon  them.  In  fact,  they  had  no  power 
to  confer  such  a  boon." 

The  fact  is  that  all  men  are  equal  in  a 
spiritual,  but  not  in  a  material,  sense.  We  are 
all  equal  before  God,  within  the  pale  of  the 
church,  and  before  the  tribunal  of  justice;  but 
in  a  material  sense  there  is  great  inequality, 
owing  partly  to  fortune  and  partly  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  individual.  To  assert  the  practical 
equality  of  all  human  beings  is  to  overthrow 
society  in  a  single  sentence.  Wherever  civiliza- 
tion is  developed  class  differences  arise,  and  the 
attempt  to  prevent  these  differences  is  like 
trying  to  dam  the  Mississippi.*  The  refusal  to 
recognize  the  existence  of  classes  is  in  itself 
demoralizing,  for  it  separates  us  from  reality 
and  encourages  delusion.  It  is  the  feminine 


*  Appendix  B. 
32 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

element  which  democratic  theorists  leave  out  of 
their  account.  They  write  as  if  the  world  was 
composed  wholly  of  the  male  sex.  Women  are 
properly  more  refined  and  sensitive  than  men, 
and  this  refinement  and  delicacy  are  essential  to 
the  progress  of  civilization.  The  home  culture 
is,  if  anything,  more  important  than  school- 
training,  and  home  culture  can  only  be  attained 
by  a  process  of  natural  selection.  f<  Odi  pro- 
fanum  vulgus"  is  the  motto  of  every  respect- 
able mother.  If  her  children  associate  with 
bad  companions,  all  her  care,  teaching,  and 
solicitude  will  be  frustrated.  For  the  children 
of  poor,  but  cultivated,  parents  to  go  to  a 
public  school  and  consort  with  rude  and  vicious 
boys  is  a  positive  misfortune.  To  obviate  this 
is  the  chief  advantage  of  wealth,  and  renders  a 
mild  kind  of  aristocracy  inevitable  and  justi- 
fiable. In  the  high-toned  socialistic  experi- 
ment of  Brook  Farm  the  mothers  did  not  ob- 
ject so  much  to  a  common  table  as  they  did  to  a 
common  nursery.  Women  are  aristocrats  by 
instinct. 

John  Stuart  Mill  recognized  the  importance 
of  the  feminine  influence  in  politics,  but  he 
misapprehended  the  right  application  of  it. 
His  mixed  government  of  men  and  women 
would  deteriorate  both  sexes.  In  Sparta  the 

3  33 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

women  voted,  and  ate  at  a  common  table ;  but 
Plato  informs  us  in  his  "  Laws"  that  they  were 
the  coarsest  and  most  immoral  in  ancient 
Greece. 

Distinctions  of  classes  will  do  no  harm  so 
long  as  they  are  not  sharply  denned.  The 
great  advantage  in  American  life  is  that  we 
have  no  titled  nobility.  Our  millionaires  and 
United  States  Senators  wield  an  influence 
equal  to  that  of  an  English  duke  or  a  German 
prince, — the  influence  always  being  largely  due 
to  the  ability  of  the  person;  but  there  are  no 
conventional  barriers  between  them  and  other 
gentlemen.  Neither  do  we  suffer  from  a  nar- 
row etiquette  which  prevents  an  English  bar- 
rister from  dancing  with  the  daughter  of  an 
attorney.  Nor  are  we  obliged  to  stultify  our- 
selves by  addressing  an  honest  tradesman  with- 
out the  prefix  of  Mister.  There  are  two  classes 
in  America,  the  farmers  and  mechanics,  who 
are  greatly  deserving  of  respect,  because  they 
are  themselves  self-respecting  and  do  not  pre- 
tend to  be  more  or  less  than  they  really  are. 
The  farmer  is  justly  proud  of  his  well-kept 
acres ;  and  the  artisan  of  his  skill,  which  much 
surpasses  that  of  the  accountant  and  city  sales- 
man. 

Emerson  said:  "The  best  society  is  accused 

34 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

of  exclusiveness  because  it  is  the  society  which 
every  one  wishes  to  enter,"  but  the  question 
might  be  pertinently  asked,  In  what  does  the 
best  society  consist?  Some  prefer  fashionable 
society,  and  others  the  less  conventional  society, 
which  immediately  surrounds  it.  As  a  rule,  the 
society  which  thinks  itself  the  best  is  not  quite 
the  best.  Would  not  the  proper  question  for 
every  man  and  woman  be,  What  is  the  best 
society  for  me?  Where  is  the  society  in  which 
I  can  move  freely  and  happily?  This  will  gen- 
erally solve  the  problem  without  any  very 
desperate  effort.  An  aggressive  democracy 
pushing  itself  forward  to  obtain  the  front  seats 
is  naturally  rebuffed  by  fashionable  society, 
which  it  wishes  to  enter  more  from  idle  curi- 
osity than  from  the  desire  to  be  helpful.  A 
rebuff  of  this  kind,  which  is  as  disagreeable  to 
the  giver  as  to  the  recipient,  is  easily  mistaken 
for  snobbishness,  although  that  is  rather  the 
mark  of  a  parvenu.  Intrusive  persons  are 
quite  as  likely  to  be  snubbed  in  a  tenement  as 
in  a  palace.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  there  is 
much  snobbishness  in  American  cities,  and  this 
is  greatly  to  be  regretted;  but  democrats  make 
snobs,  and  snobs  make  socialists  in  an  endless 
and  vicious  circle. 


35 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

THE  JUSTIFICATION  OF  GOVERNMENT 

The  doctrine  that  the  justification  of  gov- 
ernment depends  on  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned is  also  revolutionary,  for  on  this  principle 
any  form  of  government  might  be  changed  or 
overthrown  at  a  moment's  notice.  Govern- 
ments of  cities  may  have  been  established 
in  this  manner,  but  no  stable  national  gov- 
ernment ever  has  been — or  is  likely  to  be— 
until  the  human  race  is  much  wiser  than  at 
present. 

The  proposition  reduced  to  its  lowest  terms 
is  an  absurdity.  We  hear  nothing  of  the  rights 
of  minorities  in  this  dictum,  and  the  coercion 
of  even  a  small  percentage  of  the  population  is 
as  vicious  in  theory  as  the  coercion  of  the  whole. 
To  steal  a  hundred  dollars  may  not  be  as  bad 
as  stealing  ten  thousand,  but  it  is  nevertheless 
a  penitentiary  offence.  Let  us  suppose,  how- 
ever, that  the  phrase  is  intended  to  mean  no 
more  than  a  substantial  majority,  what  in- 
stance of  this  can  be  discovered  in  the  world's 
history? 

National  governments  are  of  comparatively 
recent  origin,  so  that  we  are  able  to  study  them 
in  all  the  details  of  their  formation.  I  think 
no  one  will  deny  that  the  present  British  gov- 

36 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

eminent  was  established  by  force;  but  within 
the  last  half -century  we  have  seen  national 
governments  established  in  Italy  and  Germany 
by  the  use  of  force ;  and  the  use  of  force  would 
seem  to  have  been  unavoidable,  although  it  can- 
not be  doubted  that  a  majority  in  both  coun- 
tries are  favorable  to  some  form  of  national 
unity.  When  a  republican  government  was 
established  in  France  in  1871,  it  was  generally 
believed  that  peace  and  happiness  had  at  last 
been  restored  to  that  distracted  country;  but 
on  that  instant  a  bloody  rebellion  arose  which 
was  only  quelled  with  great  difficulty. 

The  United  States  of  America  has  proved 
no  exception  to  the  general  rule.  Nobody  pre- 
tends that  the  constitution  of  1787  was  will- 
ingly adopted  by  the  people  of  this  country. 
A  large  majority  was  opposed  to  it ;  and  it  was 
openly  asked  why  did  we  go  to  war  with  Eng- 
land if  we  are  to  be  tyrannized  over  by  a  gov- 
ernment of  our  own?  It  was  the  soldiers  of 
the  revolution  (who  had  learned  the  blessings 
of  order  and  discipline)  that  carried  the  meas- 
ure through.  They  said  to  the  reluctant 
masses,  "  Vote  for  the  Constitution,  or  may  the 
devil  take  you;"  and  the  people  were  practi- 
cally dragooned  into  its  adoption  by  the  frown- 
ing looks  of  men  who  had  faced  death  on  the 

37 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

battle-field.    Senator  Lodge  says  in  his  "  Life 
of  Hamilton:" 

"  In  the  country  at  large,  and  in  the  most  of  the 
States,  there  was  a  majority  against  the  Constitution, 
but  there  it  was  before  them,  and  the  people  had  to 
make  their  choice  between  that  and  anarchy.  They 
did  not  see  the  alternative  quite  as  plainly  as  we  do 
now,  but  that  they  felt  it  is  shown  by  the  fact  that, 
while  a  large  majority  longed  to  say  '  No,'  a  very 
narrow  majority  in  eleven  States  did  say  '  Yes.' ' 

It  was  only  the  preceding  war  and  "the 
spirit  of  seventy-six"  which  made  our  national 
government  possible. 

Locke's  theory  of  proprietary  rights  in  land 
as  depending  originally  on  its  cultivation  has 
found  its  justification  in  the  methods  of  our 
western  settlers ;  but  it  could  not  apply  to  the 
possession  of  land  in  Europe,  where  repeated 
conquests  and  royal  grants  have  wholly  effaced 
the  rights  of  original  proprietors.  Savigny, 
following  the  more  scientific  method  of  his- 
torical investigation,  finds  that  the  right  to 
property  has  been  practically  developed 
through  three  successive  stages:  primarily, 
possession;  secondly,  adverse  possession,  or 
possession  against  all  comers;  and,  finally, 

*  "  Life  of  Hamilton,"  p.  64,. 
38 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

possession  ripened  by  a  prescription  of  time. 
I  believe  this  opinion  is  now  universally  ac- 
cepted; and  the  western  custom  of  jumping  a 
ranch  is  an  illustration  of  it.  There  is  a  close 
analogy  between  this  and  the  successive  stages 
in  the  formation  of  government.  First  comes 
organization;  then  the  exercise  of  authority 
without  internal  opposition ;  finally,  the  recog- 
nition by  other  governments  of  this  authority. 
Governments  have  been  founded  in  a  day  and 
have  disappeared  the  next.  The  French  Di- 
rectory lasted  seven  years  and  was  dissipated 
like  vapor  in  a  moment.  Napoleon's  govern- 
ment endured  the  severest  shocks,  but  fell  at 
last  from  a  lack  of  recognition  by  the  great 
powers.  The  government  that  is  to  endure  for 
centuries  must  sustain  severe  shocks  both  in- 
ternally and  externally. 

The  United  States  of  America  has  proved 
a  conspicuous  example  of  this.  Only  five  years 
after  the  Constitution  had  been  adopted  came 
the  Whiskey  Rebellion  in  Pennsylvania.  Then 
the  authority  of  the  national  government  was 
disputed  by  the  legislators  of  Kentucky  and 
Virginia  in  resolutions  which  emanated  from 
Jefferson  himself.  These  resolutions  were  in- 
tended to  nullify  laws  passed  by  Congress  for 
the  repression  of  seditious  disturbances, — as 

39 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

if  the  existence  of  a  government  did  not  in- 
clude the  right  to  preserve  law  and  order.  It 
was  an  assertion  of  the  preamble  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  as  against  the  pre- 
amble of  the  Constitution.  It  was  the  first 
germ  of  the  doctrine  of  the  State  sovereignty 
which  finally  culminated  in  the  Civil  War. 
The  circuitous  language  and  anonymous  au- 
thorship of  these  resolutions  are  characteristic 
of  intrigue  and  rebellion,  and  Jefferson  ap- 
propriately became  the  direct  instigator  of 
warfare  on  both  sides  of  the  line.  The  slave- 
holders seem  to  have  felt  an  instinctive  fear  of 
what  the  national  government  might  do  in  the 
way  of  coercion. 

Next  came  murmurs  of  discontent  from 
New  England,  but  not  from  persons  of  au- 
thority or  distinction.  Then  came  Aaron 
Burr's  scheme  of  disintegration,  which  failed  as 
all  such  enterprises  must  when  not  supported 
by  popular  approval,  and  after  this  the  Con- 
necticut convention  which  threatened  secession 
on  account  of  Jefferson's  embargo.  The  War 
of  1812  put  an  end  for  a  time  to  these  centrif- 
ugal tendencies,  and  effected  much  good  by 
consolidating  the  young  republic  and  exciting 
a  spirit  of  true  nationality;  but  it  was  not  long 
before  the  conflict  commenced  between  slave 

40 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

and  free  labor.  By  the  Missouri  Compromise 
the  slave-holding  faction  obtained  an  advan- 
tage which  finally  proved  their  ruin ;  for  slave 
labor  kills  free  labor  wherever  it  comes  in  con- 
tact with  it,  and  this  fact  was  more  potent  in 
consolidating  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the 
Northern  States  than  the  most  fervid  speeches 
of  the  Abolitionists.  A  long-continued  contest 
for  supremacy  in  the  national  government  re- 
sulted at  length  in  a  fiercely  contested  war,  in 
which  both  parties  honestly  believed  that  they 
were  fighting  for  freedom.  However,  in  spite 
of  Gladstone's  eulogy  of  Jefferson  Davis  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  the  civilized  world  has 
condemned  the  attempt  to  found  a  nation  on 
the  corner-stone  of  human  slavery. 

In  1865  the  United  States  were  reunited  by 
force>  and  who  will  venture  to  predict  when 
the  authority  of  our  government  will  again  be 
disputed?  No  rule  can  be  laid  down  for  the 
justification  of  revolutions.  It  is  always  a  mat- 
ter of  judgment,  like  building  a  house,  and  the 
right  or  wrong  of  it  must  always  depend  upon 
circumstances. 

Carlyle,  who  proved  a  true  prophet  in  regard 
to  negro  suffrage,  says  in  his  life  of  Frederick 
II.,  "  A  people  can  only  become  a  nation  after 
passing  through  the  baptism  of  fire ;"  and  this 

41 


TEUE  REPUBLICANISM 

is  a  grand  historical  idea,  true  either  deduc- 
tively or  inductively,  for  it  is  only  by  great  sac- 
rifices and  heroic  deeds  that  an  abiding  sense  of 
patriotism  can  be  engendered,  and  a  just  pride 
of  nationality  handed  down  like  a  legacy  from 
one  generation  to  another. 

THE  FOUNDATION   OF   POLITICS 

The  true  justification  of  government  resides 
in  its  moral  necessity.  This  is  so  obvious  that 
we  have  only  to  think  of  it  to  recognize  it.  If 
only  one  person  on  earth  desired  government, 
he  would  still  have  a  right  to  it,  even  though 
all  others  were  opposed  to  him.  This,  of 
course,  is  not  now  a  supposable  case,  for  even 
among  the  cannibals  there  are  chieftains  who 
exercise  a  rude  kind  of  authority;  but  it  proves 
the  principle,  and  the  fact  remains  that  all  new 
governments  have  been  formed  by  a  deter- 
mined minority,  who  enforced  their  plans  on  a 
weak  and  vacillating  majority.  Nor  is  this 
to  be  wondered  at,  for  among  large  masses  of 
people  occupying  a  wide  area  there  will  always 
be  so  many  conflicting  interests  and  differences 
of  opinion  that  they  can  only  become  united 
through  the  influence  of  governmental  per- 
suasion. When,  however,  they  have  expe- 
rienced the  advantage  of  national  unity,  they 

42 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

are  always  ready  to  take  up  arms  in  its  de- 
fence. 

The  mistake  that  Locke  and  other  philoso- 
phers have  made  is  in  supposing  that  certain 
favored  races,  the  Aryan  and  Semitic,  have 
always  been  civilized.  Two  thousand  years 
ago  the  Saxons  were  a  barbarous  people  as 
compared  with  the  Greeks  and  Romans ;  what 
were  they  like  two  thousand  years  before  that? 
Instead  of  Locke's  prehistoric  condition  of 
human  blessedness,  let  us  imagine  a  primitive 
state  of  society  in  which  there  was  neither  law 
nor  custom,  and  the  only  language  consisted 
of  a  few  nouns  and  verbs.  In  such  a  com- 
munity misunderstandings  would  be  perpetual 
and  the  struggle  for  sustenance  would  often 
result  in  bloodshed.  Then  some  primeval 
Moses,  a  natural  law-giver,  would  arise  and, 
with  the  help  of  his  sons,  preserve  order  for  a 
time ;  but  eventually  he  would  be  overpowered 
and  slain.  After  him  others  would  arise  from 
time  to  time,  who  would  also  meet  the  usual 
fate  of  the  world's  benefactors ;  but  at  length 
the  community  would  find  out  the  advantage 
of  having  some  kind  of  a  regulator  and  im- 
provise a  rude  way  of  selecting  one. 

Such  speculations  are  of  no  great  value,  but 
the  foregoing  is  at  least  more  reasonable  than 

43 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

Locke's  theory,  and  probably  antedates  the 
supposed  evolution  of  government  from  the 
paternal  authority;  for  strong  ties  of  kindred 
indicate  an  advanced  stage  of  moral  culture, 
as  among  the  Arab  tribes  and  the  Germans  of 
Tacitus.*  With  most  savage  races  the  ties  of 
family  come  to  an  end  when  physical  assist- 
ance is  no  longer  necessary.  You  will  notice, 
also,  that  in  our  public  schools  the  boys  who 
take  the  lead  are  more  often  self-appointed 
than  suggested  or  chosen  by  their  companions. 
If  we  look  at  government  as  a  moral  neces- 
sity all  history  becomes  intelligible;  whereas 
otherwise  it  would  seem  as  if  the  human  race — 
at  the  present  time — had  just  escaped  from 
bondage, — not  much  of  a  compliment,  either. 
If  the  question  is  raised,  Does  not  this  justify 
military  despotism  or  any  absolute  form  of 
government?  I  answer,  it  certainly  does  where 
despotism  is  the  only  form  attainable.  It  has 
been  said  that  in  the  long  run  a  nation  will 
have  the  kind  of  government  it  deserves,  and  in 
a  general  way  this  is  true  enough.  The  des- 
potisms of  Morocco  and  Siam  are  justified  be- 
cause the  Moors  and  Siamese  cannot  be  made 


*  It  is  probable  enough  that  the  Germanic  form  of  govern- 
ment originated  in  this  manner. 

44 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

to  understand  the  difference  between  abstract 
right  and  personal  interest;  but  that  Christian 
Greeks  should  be  governed  by  Turks  is  a  great 
misfortune,  for  they  deserve  much  better  treat- 
ment. So  also  the  Russians  may  be  said  to  de- 
serve better  government  than  that  which  they 
now  endure.  Nations,  like  individuals,  are  some- 
times the  victims  of  circumstances.  The  Ser- 
vians and  Bulgarians  have  only  lately  escaped 
from  a  piratical  tyranny  which  lasted  for  more 
than  four  centuries. 

Who  can  doubt  that  the  government  of  Solo- 
mon and  the  Maccabees  was  justifiable?  The 
Jews  are  to-day  monarchical,  and  they  seemed 
never  to  understand  that  the  kingdom  which 
Christ  prophesied  for  them  was  not  of  this 
earth.  The  Roman  Empire  was  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  a  mercenary  plutocracy  which 
had  already  robbed  the  Romans  of  their  liberty 
and  was  plundering  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
Besides  this,  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  justi- 
fied— and  with  good  reason — by  the  consistent 
development  of  the  Roman  law,  which  certainly 
could  not  have  taken  place  under  the  dominion 
of  the  lawless  Roman  Senate.  The  five  good 
Emperors  would  seem  to  have  been  sent  by  Di- 
vine Providence  for  this  purpose — as  Hamil- 
ton was  sent  to  the  American  Colonies. 

45 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

We  can  only  say  of  past  ages  that  certain 
institutions  were  good  in  their  time.  How 
much  better  they  might  have  been  we  cannot 
tell.  Gibbon  thinks  that  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire  was  owing  to  Christianity.  Mommsen 
thinks  it  was  the  prevalence  of  slave  labor, 
which  seems  much  more  probable.  The  feudal 
system,  which  arose  after  the  death  of  Charle- 
magne and  has  still  left  its  impress  on  the  Eu- 
rope of  to-day,  is  still  more  of  a  puzzle.  But  an 
institution  so  universal  would  seem  necessarily 
to  have  originated  in  the  vital  requirements  of 
that  peculiar  age.  It  was  a  fine  school  of  disci- 
pline for  heroic  virtues  and  produced  some  of 
the  grandest  characters  in  history.  There  is 
also  a  tenderness  of  feeling  and  depth  of  sym- 
pathy in  the  old  English  ballads  and  the  poetry 
of  the  Minnesingers  that  we  do  not  always  find 
in  the  poets  of  our  own  time. 

Napoleon  said  of  Spain  that  if  it  were  well 
governed  it  would  soon  be  the  rival  of  France; 
and  the  loss  of  Cuba  may  be  considered  much 
less  of  a  misfortune  to  the  Spanish  people  than 
the  suppression  of  their  constitution  by  the 
Emperor  Charles  V.  The  tendency  to  centrali- 
zation in  the  sixteenth  century  brought  with 
it  an  irresponsible  form  of  monarchy,  which 
caused  great  mischief,  and  from  which  Eng- 

46 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

land  alone  was  preserved  by  the  brief  dictator- 
ship of  Cromwell — equally  irresponsible,  but  in 
the  right  direction.  The  aristocratic  republics 
of  Holland  and  Venice  were  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century  in  a  political  condition  not 
much  better  than  that  of  France  and  Spain. 
Pichegru  was  welcomed  by  the  Dutch  middle 
classes  as  a  deliverer,  and  after  the  annexation 
of  Venice  to  Austria  the  city  soon  doubled  its 
numbers. 

The  conquest  of  Gaul  and  Britain  by  the 
Romans  was  justified  by  their  putting  a  stop  to 
the  human  sacrifices  of  the  Druids,  and  the 
English  occupation  of  India  may  be  justified 
in  the  same  manner.  Gangooli,  a  Brahman 
who  was  converted  to  Christianity  and  came  to 
America,  when  he  was  commiserated  on  the  ser- 
vitude of  his  countrymen,  replied  that  on  the 
whole  the  British  government  of  India  had 
been  of  great  advantage  to  them. 

This  is  not  an  argument  for  monarchy  or 
aristocracy  or  any  form  of  foreign  conquest, 
but  is  simply  intended  to  show  that  different 
institutions  are  suited  to  different  times  and 
races.  A  republic  like  that  of  the  United 
States  would  have  been  as  irrelevant  in  the 
twelfth  century  as  baronial  castles  would  be 
upon  American  hills. 

47 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

"Political  theories,"  said  Bismarck,  "either 
lead  to  dogmatism  or  to  those  illusions  which 
blind  men  to  facts."  One  evident  cause  of  Bis- 
marck's prolonged  success  is  that  he  never  was 
troubled  with  theories  of  any  kind.  How  little 
men  care  for  these  so-called  principles  of  poli- 
tics was  exemplified  in  the  recent  war  with 
Spain.  The  Maine  outrage  precipitated  that 
war,  but  the  American  people  went  into  it  in  the 
spirit  of  a  crusade.  They  believed  that  wrong 
had  been  done  and  that  the  oppressed  were  to 
be  liberated;  but  as  soon  as  this  was  accom- 
plished, the  United  States  government  annexed 
Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippine  Islands  without 
consulting  the  wishes  of  the  inhabitants  or  of 
its  own  subjects.  This  was  exercising  the  right 
of  conquest  as  Bismarck  exercised  it  in  1870, 
for  which  he  was  severely  reprobated  by  Amer- 
ican newspapers,  and  with  less  excuse,  for  he 
only  reannexed  provinces  that  had  formerly  be- 
longed to  Germany,  and  the  agitation  against 
it  was  mainly  inspired  by  the  emissaries  of  Pius 
IX.  When  Senator  Hoar  raised  his  voice  to 
warn  the  American  people  that  they  were  act- 
ing contrary  to  their  professed  principles  and 
establishing  a  dangerous  precedent,  he  found 
few  indeed  to  support  him.  He  was  de- 
nounced for  insubordination  to  his  party,  and 

48 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

this  implied  a  denial  of  the  right  of  free  speech. 
It  would  seem  that  the  principles  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  were  intended  to  apply 
to  Americans,  but  not  to  other  races.  The 
truth,  is,  however,  that  these  principles  are  not 
eternal  and  immutable,  like  the  Golden  Rule 
and  the  Ten  Commandments.  They  belong  to 
a  period  of  our  history  from  which  we  are  rap- 
idly receding.* 

The  rights  of  human  beings  are  best  defined 
in  the  common  law  and  the  statutes,  and  it  re- 
quires no  slight  study  to  obtain  a  knowledge  of 
them.  Their  boundaries  are  indefinable  and 
must  always  remain  so;  but  the  first  of  all 
rights  is  the  right  to  good  government.  If  a 
man  has  a  right  to  anything  it  is  this, — to  being 
governed  wisely  and  justly.  All  history  has 
been  an  effort  to  obtain  this  right,  and  it  is  yet 
unattained.  To  construct  a  government  which 
shall  be  strong  without  being  tyrannical,  which 
shall  advance  the  interests  of  its  own  people 
without  detriment  to  other  nations,  which  acts 
with  sufficient  unity  of  purpose  without  inter- 
fering too  much  with  local  institutions  and 
customs,  and  which  shall  be  at  once  conservative 
and  progressive, — such  is  always  the  endeavor 

*  Appendix  C. 
4  49 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

of  the  constructive  statesman.  The  democratic 
principle,  however,  interferes  with  this  en- 
deavor, for  it  inculcates  the  notion  that  the  less 
a  people  is  governed  the  better.  Its  tendency 
is  to  weaken  authority,  to  prevent  unity  of  ac- 
tion, to  be  wasteful  in  small  affairs,  and  to  be 
economical  in  large  enterprises.  Its  disrespect 
for  history  undermines  conservatism,  and  its 
lack  of  definite  aims  interferes  with  progress. 
The  democratic  ship  of  state,  instead  of  being 
navigated  in  a  rational  manner,  is  permitted  to 
drift  with  the  current  until  it  becomes  grounded 
on  political  shallows.  Such  was  the  course  in 
the  long  period  of  democratic  ascendency  from 
Jefferson  to  Buchanan,  and  such  will  probably 
be  the  course  of  the  present  French  Republic. 

A  nation  may  easily  be  governed  too  little  as 
well  as  too  much.  The  president  of  Harvard 
University,  in  his  excellent  letter  previous  to 
the  last  election,  referred  to  the  strong  Ameri- 
can love  of  liberty,  and  afterwards  complained 
that  our  country  suffered  from  too  many  lynch- 
ings,  shooting  affrays,  and  other  riotous  dis- 
turbances. No  wonder  that  he  thought  so,  when 
it  is  rarely  possible  to  take  up  an  American 
newspaper  without  being  confronted  with  the 
account  of  a  murder  or  a  lynching.  Few  inno- 
cent persons  may  have  suffered,  and  the  ma- 

50 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

jority  no  doubt  deserved  their  fate;  but  a 
large  proportion,  especially  negroes,  have  been 
treated  more  severely  than  any  court  of  justice 
authorized  legally  would  have  punished  them. 

Not  long  since  a  Mississippi  clergyman  shot 
three  of  his  townsmen  in  rapid  succession  in  the 
public  square.  A  report  of  the  proceeding 
stated  that  the  reverend  gentleman  emptied  the 
chambers  of  his  revolver,  and  then  watched  the 
writhing  of  his  victims  until  he  was  arrested 
and  placed  in  jail  to  protect  him  from  mob  vio- 
lence. His  subsequent  fate  I  never  learned, 
but  it  is  not  likely  that  he  suffered  from  process 
of  law.  In  another  southwestern  town  two 
populous  families  carried  on  a  feud  until  all 
but  three  of  the  male  members  were  destroyed. 
The  head  man  of  one  faction  was  shot  from  a 
window  in  a  most  cowardly  manner  while  he 
was  walking  to  church  with  his  wife.  Such 
actions  remind  one  of  the  lawless  deeds  of  the 
Scotch  border  during  the  Middle  Ages;  but 
they  did  not  take  place  on  the  frontiers,  but  in 
well  and  long  settled  communities. 

The  last  of  November,  1903,  a  school-mis- 
tress in  Charlestown,  Indiana,  was  mobbed  by 
her  scholars  and  taken  to  a  frozen  pond,  where 
she  was  immersed  in  cold  water  up  to  her  neck 
for  nearly  an  hour;  a  treatment  which  brought 

51 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

on  a  fever,  and  at  last  accounts  she  was  lying  in 
a  critical  condition.  During  the  past  ten  years 
more  than  two  thousand  persons  have  been  put 
to  death  by  lynching  in  the  United  States ;  and 
an  appeal  made  by  the  Methodist  clergy  of 
Chicago  to  President  McKinley  to  take  action 
in  regard  to  this  enormity  produced  no  effect., 
for  the  President  is  as  practically  as  powerless 
in  such  a  matter  as  any  private  citizen.  Read 
the  daily  page  of  crime  in  the  New  York  H er- 
aldj  and  reflect  on  the  fact  that  there  is  no 
country  in  Europe,  except  Turkey,  where  the 
like  would  be  possible. 

Lynchings  have  not  only  been  committed  for 
murder,  arson,  and  rapine,  but  for  the  smaller 
crimes  of  larceny,  rioting,  and  barn-burning, 
and  other  offences,  which  legally  would  only  be 
punished  by  imprisonment.  The  moral  effect 
of  lynching  is  exactly  the  opposite  of  punish- 
ment inflicted  according  to  law.  There  have 
been  instances  in  which  no  better  justice  could 
be  obtained,  but  as  a  rule  it  stimulates  reckless- 
ness of  conduct  and  incites  to  acts  of  violence 
and  bloodshed.  To  permit  boys,  and  even 
women,  to  look  upon  the  infliction  of  capital 
punishment  is  in  itself  the  depth  of  depravity. 
Senator  Hoar,  in  an  address  to  the  Legislature 
of  Massachusetts,  referred  to  the  fact  that  a 

52 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

hundred  years  ago  a  case  of  murder  caused  a 
six  weeks'  sensation,  while  now  it  is  so  common 
that  if  one  takes  place  in  the  next  street  to  us 
it  hardly  attracts  attention.  He  called  this  a 
dark  picture.  It  is  as  dark  as  the  midnight  be- 
fore a  storm.  Much  of  this  is  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  inefficiency  of  local  police,  and  much  to 
the  difficulty  of  persuading  juries  to  agree  in 
regard  to  capital  offences;  many  culprits  es- 
cape arrest,  and  many  escape  conviction  who 
deserve  to  be  hanged ;  but  is  it  not  also  largely 
due  to  the  sentiment  of  revolutionary  freedom? 
Does  not  this  inculcate  a  spirit  of  insubordi- 
nation, a  tendency  to  break  through  all  con- 
ventional bonds  and  civil  restraints?  Does  it 
not  cultivate  an  abnormal  self-conceit,  like  that 
of  the  Colorado  hotel  waiter  who  shot  a  guest 
at  the  breakfast-table  for  treating  him  in  a  dis- 
respectful manner  ?  Why  should  there  be  more 
desperadoes  in  New  England  and  the  Mid- 
dle States  than  are  to  be  found  in  England, 
France,  or  Germany?  In  a  country  like  Ire- 
land, where  the  laboring  class  is  always  on  the 
verge  of  starvation,  necessity  engenders  des- 
perate proceedings;  but  in  the  United  States 
there  is  no  class  of  persons  to  whom  this  rule 
applies,  and  among  our  criminals  there  is  a 
large  proportion  of  native-born  Anglo-Saxons. 

53 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

It  is  true  that  the  riffraff  of  Europe  have  been 
emigrating  to  America  for  the  past  hundred 
years,  and  there  has  been  some  pretty  danger- 
ous material  in  it;  but  the  German  anarchists 
who  fought  the  Chicago  police  with  dynamite 
did  not  apparently  think  of  this  in  their  own 
country.  If  all  government  were  to  be  sud- 
denly removed,  would  not  crime  and  misde- 
meanor, if  punished  at  all,  be  punished  by  im- 
promptu courts  of  justice,  that  is,  by  lynching? 
If  Hamilton's  plan,  to  have  the  governors 
of  the  States  appointed  by  the  President,  had 
been  adopted  by  the  convention  of  1787,  this 
condition  of  affairs  would  hardly  have  been 
possible.  It  is  the  necessity  of  popular  sup- 
port which  weakens  the  executive  in  States  like 
Georgia  and  Kentucky,  and  when  public  senti- 
ment countenances  the  practice  of  shooting  at 
sight,  the  executive  authority  will  rarely  be  able 
to  oppose  it  successfully.  The  governors  of 
the  States  would  be  far  more  independent  if 
they  derived  their  authority  from  the  central 
power  instead  of  from  their  own  citizens,  and 
their  administration  would  have  a  more  uni- 
form and  national  character.  Such  a  change 
could  be  effected  now  only  by  a  violent  revo- 
lution, but  Congress  might  easily  enact  a  sedi- 
tion law  which  would  enable  the  President  "  to 

54 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

preserve  domestic  tranquillity"  and  to  transfer 
criminal  cases  to  United  States  courts  if  con- 
sidered essential  to  the  ends  of  justice.  The 
least  Congress  could  do  would  be  to  pass  gen- 
eral laws  against  the  burning  of  negroes  and 
the  practice  of  shooting  at  sight.  Let  us  live  in 
a  Christian  country. 

France  is  a  nation  with  a  more  democratic 
government  than  our  own,  and  yet  every 
Frenchman  lives  under  a  network  of  regula- 
tions which  to  Americans  might  seem  intoler- 
able. And  the  reason  of  this  is  partly  owing 
to  their  highly  centralized  administration,  and 
partly  to  the  fact  that  a  good  many  laws  of  the 
second  empire  which  have  been  found  salutary 
still  remain  in  force.  Every  Frenchman  is 
obliged  to  become  a  soldier  at  the  age  of  eigh- 
teen for  two  years,  and  most  Frenchmen  are 
ready  to  admit  the  moral  and  physical  advan- 
tages of  that  early  training.  No  building  can 
be  erected  in  a  French  city  without  the  approval 
of  a  government  commission,  and  this  is  no  idle 
formality.  Edifices  that  are  not  suitable  and 
harmonious  to  their  surroundings  are  carefully 
excluded,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  Paris, 
Lyons,  and  Marseilles  are  so  much  more  ele- 
gant than  any  English  or  American  cities.  If 
slight  injustice  is  sometimes  done  in  this  way, 

55 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

it  is  nothing  to  the  injustice  to  the  whole  public 
which  is  caused  by  the  erection  of  monstrous 
grotesque  or  ill-assorted  buildings  in  our  large 
centres.  The  solecism  in  the  English  law  that 
the  owner  of  ground  owns  up  to  the  sky  was  in- 
vented before  elevators  were  thought  of,  and 
consequently  no  provision  was  made  against 
the  construction  of  very  high  buildings.  Por- 
tions of  New  York  City  are  still  fine-looking, 
but,  as  a  whole,  it  wears  the  trade-mark  of  an 
unregulated  commercial  greed. 

EXISTING  EVILS 

At  the  time  of  our  great  Centennial  the  Lon- 
don Times  said,  "Editorially  we  cannot  con- 
gratulate ourselves  that  so  corrupt  a  govern- 
ment as  that  of  the  United  States  exists  upon 
the  earth."  The  United  States  of  America  is 
not  responsible  for  forcing  opium  upon  the 
Chinese,  nor  for  supporting  the  Turks  in  their 
devastation  of  Christian  provinces,  nor  for 
enjoying  the  extravagant  luxury  of  suppress- 
ing a  Dutch  republic  in  Africa ;  but  in  the  year 
1876  it  is  not  so  surprising  that  the  Times 
should  have  made  this  statement. 

The  true  history  of  that  period  will  probably 
never  be  published  in  America.  One  after  an- 
other of  the  highest  officials  in  Washington 

56 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

were  exposed  for  malfeasance  or  peculation 
and  retired  in  disgrace  to  private  life.  Had 
they  received  their  deserts,  they  would  all  have 
gone  to  prison.  In  republican  Rome  they 
would  have  been  put  to  death.  Burglars  were 
hired  to  steal  state  documents  which  compro- 
mised persons  in  high  position.  It  seemed  as 
if  the  only  honest  person  in  the  government 
was  the  President  himself,  who  was,  however, 
wholly  oblivious  in  regard  to  the  character  of 
his  associates. 

This  was,  however,  a  transient  phase — a  re- 
coil of  the  cannon.  Nothing  is  so  damaging 
to  a  political  party  as  direct  peculation  from 
the  public  treasure,  and  with  a  succession  of 
Presidents  who  have  recognized  this  fact  and 
honorable  representatives  at  foreign  courts,  the 
government  of  the  United  States  stands  before 
the  world  in  as  fair  a  light  as  the  British  gov- 
ernment or  any  other.  The  evils  which  now 
assail  it  are  more  insidious,  deep-seated,  dan- 
gerous, and  difficult  to  deal  with. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  that  the  purest 
as  well  as  most  dignified  period  of  American 
politics  came  to  an  end  with  the  administration 
of  John  Quincy  Adams.  Jackson  introduced 
the  party  spoils  system,  and  if  he  had  wholly 
usurped  the  sovereignty  he  would  probably 

57 


X^SRAS>V 

OF  THE  X 

{    UNIVERSITY  ) 
OF  ./ 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

have  caused  less  mischief.  It  was  organized 
Jacobinism, — what  Hamilton  had  feared  and 
predicted  and  tried  to  avert, — but  the  anti- 
slavery  conflict  soon  overshadowed  Jackson's 
innovation  and  elevated  politics  as  long  as  this 
conflict  lasted.  The  period  from  1850  to  1870 
was  one  of  the  grand  epochs  of  history. 

After  the  Civil  War  the  "  spoils  of  office" 
again  raised  its  ugly  head  in  conjunction  with 
a  new  and  formidable  ally;  and  this  ally  soon 
became  known  as  the  "  boss  system"  in  politics. 
This  was  a  natural  consequence  of  choosing  a 
military  President.  Lincoln  had  been  many 
years  in  political  life  before  he  was  elected,  and 
was  well  acquainted  with  leading  public  men  in 
the  different  States.  He  was  therefore  well 
qualified  to  select  his  own  appointees  with  a 
fair  knowledge  of  their  ability  and  character; 
but  Grant  was  unacquainted  with  these  men, 
even  by  name,  and  the  only  course  open  to  him 
was  to  trust  to  the  judgment  of  others,  and 
with  a  very  weak  Cabinet  this  finally  resulted  in 
turning  over  the  appointments  to  the  leading 
Senators,  who  thus  acquired  a  great  increase 
of  power,  and  this  power  they  have  never  been 
willing  to  surrender.* 

*  In  justice  to  Grant  it  should  always  be  remembered  that  his 
firmness  saved  the  country  from  an  inflated  currency,  and  that 

58 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

As  much  as  the  Senate  gained  in  this  man- 
ner, just  so  much  was  lost  to  the  House  of 
Representatives.  Members  of  Congress  were 
now  obliged  to  solicit  favors  for  their  friends 
from  the  senators  of  their  respective  States, 
and  a  form  of  military  subordination  was  fos- 
tered in  the  government  wholly  at  variance 
with  republican  institutions.  About  the  same 
time  the  popular  branch  of  Congress  surren- 
dered nearly  all  the  authority  that  was  left  to 
it  by  gradual  changes  in  its  rules  of  procedure 
which  left  it  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  its  own 
speaker.*  This  was  done  by  a  strong  party 
majority  for  the  purpose  of  expediting  public 
business,  but  the  promoters  of  the  changes 
could  not  have  realized  their  ultimate  conse- 
quences. The  tendency  to  imperialism  in  de- 
mocracy has  become  a  truism  among  historians. 

The  strength  of  this  movement  may  be 
judged  from  the  fact  that  the  American  peo- 
ple were  powerless  to  prevent  it.  Sumner  was 
the  first  to  attack  it,  and  burned  out  the  embers 
of  his  life  in  his  last  act  of  patriotic  devotion. 


he  maintained  law  and  order  in  the  Southern  States  when  it  was 
most  difficult  to  do  so. 

*  Written  on  Lincoln's  birthday,  and  the  same  day  Repre- 
sentative McCall  delivered  a  telling  speech  in  the  House  against 
the  encroachments  of  the  Senate. 

59 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

When  the  general  public  recognized  what  was 
taking  place,  the  indignation  was  well-nigh 
universal,  and  the  administration  met  with  a 
crushing  defeat  at  the  polls  in  1874;  but  the 
"  boss  system"  still  held  its  ground.  A  reform 
president  was  elected  in  1876,  but  with  a  hos- 
tile majority  in  the  Senate  he  was  able  to  ac- 
complish little.  His  strong  effort  for  civil  ser- 
vice reform  was  not  sustained  by  the  public. 
All  the  world  knows  the  fate  of  his  successor. 

If  the  "boss  system"  is  not  to  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  Garfield's  death,  it  can  certainly 
be  laid  to  the  account  of  the  spoils  system. 
After  his  assassination  and  the  election  of 
Cleveland,  the  autocratic  bosses  disappeared; 
but  the  dragon's  teeth  were  sown,  and  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  boss  system  soon  appeared 
in  both  parties, — what  is  now  known  as  the 
"  political  machine." 

Change  is  the  universal  law.  Call  a  govern- 
ment what  you  will,  and  no  sooner  does  it  come 
into  operation  than  the  tendency  to  change  be- 
comes apparent.  Some  kind  of  organization 
is  always  necessary  for  a  political  party,  and 
there  had  always  been  more  or  less  of  it,  but  not 
until  lately  has  it  reached  the  condition  of  a 
perfect  organization.  In  all  the  larger  and 
more  important  States,  excepting  perhaps 

60 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

Massachusetts,  there  now  exists  a  half -con- 
cealed organization  subordinated  like  a  grand 
army,  which  has  for  its  object,  primarily,  the 
success  of  its  party  at  all  cost  and  hazard,  and, 
secondly,  an  equitable  division  of  the  spoils 
among  its  members.  All  persons  of  public  im- 
portance are  obliged  to  find  their  places  in  this 
organization,  whether  they  approve  of  it  or 
not ;  and  he  who  opposes  it  or  even  hesitates  to 
obey  its  mandates  is  expelled  from  the  fold  and 
finds  the  doors  of  political  life  are  closed  to 
him  for  the  future.  Strong  men,  like  Roose- 
velt, occasionally  break  through  this  by  a  tour 
de  force,  but  such  is  the  general  rule.  The  one 
virtue  it  respects  is  uniformity ;  the  one  vice  it 
abhors  is  independence.  It  pre-arranges  and 
regulates  all  political  meetings  from  the  pri- 
mary caucuses  to  the  great  national  conven- 
tions; and,  finally,  the  American  people  are 
called  in  at  the  last  moment  to  vote  for  candi- 
dates whom  they  have  never  nominated  and  for 
measures  which  perhaps  are  not  intended  to 
become  laws. 

That  an  appreciable  residuum  of  political 
power  still  appertains  to  the  people  of  the 
United  States  is  certain ;  but  it  is  equally  cer- 
tain that  this  residuum  is  steadily  diminishing. 

Democracies,  as  history  has  proved,  are  much 

61 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

more  practicable  on  a  small  scale  than  on  a 
large  one ;  and  the  more  unwieldy  the  popula- 
tion of  this  country  becomes,  the  stronger  will 
be  the  tendency  to  centralization  and  the  one- 
man  power.  Meanwhile  we  are  being  hocussed 
by  formulas  and  fine  phrases,  and  the  men  who 
do  this  believe  in  all  sincerity  that  they  are  the 
apostles  of  civilization. 

Almost  any  form  of  organization  is  better 
than  political  confusion,  and  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied that  the  political  machine  gives  a  kind  of 
stability  to  American  politics.  It  is  probable 
that  the  Republican  machine  saved  the  country 
from  a  debased  coinage  and  partial  repudiation 
in  1896;  but  I  think  there  are  few  who  would 
hesitate  to  condemn  the  method.  The  political 
machine  is  as  soulless  as  a  steel  corporation,  and 
crushes  out  freedom  of  discussion  and  inde- 
pendence of  action  as  a  machine  crushes  what- 
ever stands  in  its  way.  Its  managers  will  in- 
evitably cease  to  be  statesmen  and  become 
mechanics.  It  will  pervert  politics  from  a  sci- 
ence to  a  trade. 

No  wonder  that  there  are  no  longer  great 
orators  in  America  like  Clay,  Webster,  and 
Sumner,  for  free  speech  and  independence  of 
character  are  the  life  of  the  orator.  There  is 
no  soil  now  in  this  country  for  oratory  to  grow 

62 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 


in.  Political  discussions  have  to  be  so  guarded 
for  fear  that  what  is  said  in  the  State  of  New 
York  may  give  offence  in  Illinois,  or  vice  versa, 
that  true  eloquence — which  means  speaking 
out  one's  mind — is  no  longer  possible;  and 
what  encouragement  is  there  for  oratory  in  the 
halls  of  Congress  when  every  speaker  knows 
that  the  measure  under  discussion  will  be  de- 
cided by  a  strict  party  vote.  Evarts  was  a  law- 
yer of  rare  ability,  but  he  passed  six  years  in 
the  United  States  Senate  without  distinguish- 
ing himself  from  his  colleagues  by  one  mem- 
orable effort  in  behalf  of  reform.  Yet  Evarts 
had  already  proved  himself  a  statesman. 

All  honor  to  those  true-hearted,  patriotic 
men  who  continue  to  find  a  foothold  in  Ameri- 
can politics  in  spite  of  many  obstacles;  who 
adapt  themselves  to  conditions  as  they  find 
them,  and  even  compromise  with  their  own  con- 
sciences for  the  public  good. 

One  of  the  worst  consequences  of  machine 
politics  is  its  effect  on  character, — on  individu- 
ality. John  Stuart  Mill  says  in  his  "  Essay  on 
Liberty:" 

"  It  really  is  of  importance,  not  only  what  men  do, 
but  also  what  manner  of  men  they  are  that  do  it. 
Among  the  works  of  man,  which  human  life  is  rightly 
employed  in  perfecting  and  beautifying,  the  first  in 

63 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

importance  surely  is  man  himself.  Supposing  it  were 
possible  to  get  houses  built,  corn  grown,  battles 
fought,  causes  tried,  and  even  churches  erected  and 
prayers  said  by  machinery — by  automatons  in  human 
form — it  would  be  a  considerable  loss  to  exchange  for 
these  automatons  even  the  men  and  women  who  at  pres- 
ent inhabit  the  more  civilized  parts  of  the  world,  and 
who  assuredly  are  but  starved  specimens  of  what  na- 
ture can  and  will  produce.  Human  nature  is  not  a 
machine  to  be  built  after  a  model  and  set  to  do  exactly 
the  work  prescribed  for  it,  but  a  tree,  which  requires 
to  grow  and  develop  itself  on  all  sides,  according  to 
the  tendency  of  the  inward  forces  which  make  it  a 
living  thing."  * 

Without  individuality  there  is  no  true  great- 
ness, no  qualitative  greatness;  but  democratic 
principle  is  inimical  to  qualitative  greatness, 
and  therefore  tends  to  substitute  for  it  an  im- 
aginary form  of  greatness.  It  is  rare  good 
fortune  when  a  political  party  enjoys  the  ser- 
vices of  two  such  complete  statesmen  as  Clay 
and  Webster;  but  in  1848  both  were  passed 
over  to  confer  the  presidential  honor  upon  the 
victor  of  Buena  Vista,  by  no  means  a  remark- 
able victory  gained  against  a  weak  and  unskil- 
ful enemy.  The  Dewey  craze  was  a  recent 

*  Mill  "  On  Liberty,"  p.  106. 
64 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

example  of  this  popular  exaggeration  of  char- 
acter and  ability. 

It  is  rather  a  startling  fact,  but  strictly  true, 
that  there  was  more  freedom  of  discussion  dur- 
ing the  last  twenty-five  years  in  the  German 
Reichstag  than  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States.  The  law  which  prevents  criticism  of 
the  imperial  family  does  not  interfere  with  per- 
fect freedom  of  debate,  and  government  meas- 
ures in  the  Reichstag  were  subjected  by  orators 
like  Windhorst,  Lasker,  Richter  and  others,  to 
such  a  searching  investigation  as  might  recall 
the  best  days  of  our  own  Senate.  The  reason 
for  this  is  that  there  is  always  a  body  of  high- 
minded  independent  delegates  in  the  Reichs- 
tag whose  votes  are  only  to  be  won  by  sound 
argument.  Some  of  the  finest  oratory  of  the 
last  half -century  was  called  forth  by  Bis- 
marck's '  Kulturkampf"  and  anti-socialist 
laws. 

Even  a  cross-eyed  person  can  see  that  the 
political  machine  depends  for  its  support  on 
the  practice  of  distributing  offices  as  the  reward 
of  party  services.  Take  this  linchpin  out  of 
its  wheels  and  the  vehicle  will  soon  come  to  the 
ground.  It  is  natural  and  proper  that  promi- 
nent public  speakers  and  other  exceptional  men 
should  take  offices  under  a  President  whom 

5  65 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

they  have  assisted  in  electing,  and  if  they  lose 
their  places  after  a  few  years  it  is  no  particular 
hardship ;  but  for  the  great  army  of  clerks  and 
other  subordinates  in  the  government  service 
to  be  turned  out  of  office  is  a  more  serious  mat- 
ter. It  may  be  years  before  a  large  proportion 
of  them  can  obtain  employment,  and  mean- 
while they  have  to  be  supported  by  their  rela- 
tives, or  perhaps  become  degraded.  It  is  a  ter- 
rible thing  for  a  salaried  man  with  a  family  to 
be  thrown  out  of  line,  and  for  this  reason  the 
best  class  of  employees  avoid  government  ser- 
vice as  long  as  they  can.  It  is  also  true  that 
where  appointments  depend  upon  personal  fa- 
vor a  large  proportion  of  them  are  likely  to  be 
unfit  or  injudicious;  and  it  is  no  less  unfor- 
tunate that  the  faithful  performance  of  his 
duties  by  a  government  official  should  count 
for  nothing  towards  the  security  of  his  posi- 
tion. Consequently  too  many  government  em- 
ployees are  equally  negligent  and  insolent, 
while  the  general  community  suffers  from 
these  periodic  overturns.  The  principle  of  ro- 
tation in  office  is  injurious  to  all  parties  con- 
cerned. 

Let  us  suppose  that  a  clerk  in  a  grocery  store 
acquires  some  local  political  influence,  helps  to 
elect  a  Congressman,  and  receives  an  office  in 

66 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

the  custom-house  as  his  reward.  From  the  mo- 
ment he  accepts  the  position  his  influence 
declines,  for  people  suspect  at  once  that  his 
motives  are  not  wholly  disinterested,  and  after 
the  next  Congressional  election  he  is  super- 
seded by  another,  who  passes  through  the  same 
experience.  In  July,  1897,  after  a  sufficient 
number  of  changes  had  been  made,  President 
McKinley  issued  an  order  to  the  effect  that  no 
government  officials  should  be  removed  for  po- 
litical reasons;  but  previous  to  the  election  of 
1900  it  was  found  necessary  to  rescind  this  or- 
der, because  where  one  man  held  an  office  there 
were  four  or  five  who  wanted  to  take  it  away 
from  him,  and  if  the  hopes  of  these  aspirants 
were  cut  off  it  was  likely  that  they  might  desert 
in  a  body  to  the  opposite  party, — a  loss  of  per- 
haps half  a  million  votes.  In  this  way  our 
presidential  elections  become  largely  a  game  of 
chance  with  Federal  offices  for  prizes. 

Hon.  E.  R.  Hoar  was  the  pioneer  in  civil 
service  reform — that  is,  the  first  to  inaugurate 
it  within  his  own  party.  Such  an  uproar  as  the 
proposed  reform  caused  in  Washington  had 
not  been  known  since  the  days  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  and  Judge  Hoar  was  obliged  to 
retire  to  private  life.  This  was  in  1869,  and 
since  that  time  how  many  patriotic  men  have 

67  ' 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

labored  zealously  in  this  cause,  and  what  have 
they  accomplished?  It  was  less  than  twenty- 
five  years  from  the  mobbing  of  Garrison  to  the 
emancipation  of  the  negroes,  and  it  is  now 
more  than  thirty  years  since  Judge  Hoar  left 
Grant's  cabinet.  If  civil  service  reform  is  any- 
where in  sight,  it  would  take  a  powerful  tele- 
scope to  discover  it. 

The  last  report  of  the  New  York  Civil  Ser- 
vice Reform  Club  was  called  a  humorous  docu- 
ment, and,  looked  at  in  a  certain  way,  it  was  so ; 
but  in  a  higher  sense  it  was  a  pathetic  publica- 
tion. It  was  a  record  of  promises  broken  and 
laws  evaded.  President  Cleveland,  who  was 
remarkable  for  the  excellence  of  his  appoint- 
ments, went  into  office  under  solemn  pledges 
that  he  would  make  no  removals  for  political 
purposes,  except  for  cases  of  "  offensive  parti- 
sanship." This  exception,  however,  appears  to 
have  covered  nearly  the  whole  case,  for  during 
his  term  of  office  eighty-eight  per  cent,  of  the 
classified  service  was  relegated  to  an  "innocu- 
ous desuetude."*  If  he  had  only  removed 
some  fifty  per  cent.,  so  that  the  Democrats 
might  enjoy  a  fair  proportion  of  the  spoils,  he 
could  not  have  been  greatly  blamed.  Presi- 


*  These  expressions  have  become  historic. 
68 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

dent  Harrison  not  only  permitted  the  ap- 
pointees of  Cleveland  to  be  turned  out,  but  also 
several  thousand  Republicans  who  had  held 
office  since  the  time  of  Garfield.  Nor  did  a 
large  proportion  of  those  who  had  been  pre- 
viously removed  recover  their  places. 

Cleveland  and  Harrison  were  both  good 
Presidents;  but  who  can  stem  the  current  of 
Niagara?  Yet  the  fact  remains  that  this  evil 
does  not  exist  in  Great  Britain,  France,  or  Ger- 
many. 

There  may  have  been  some  improvement  in 
the  character  of  appointments  during  the  past 
twelve  years,  but  the  civil  service  examinations 
have  not  contributed  much  to  this.  Formal  ex- 
aminations are  no  test  of  character  and  very 
little  of  ability.  Thousands  of  applicants 
passed  this  test,  but  only  those  were  appointed 
who  had  political  influence;  and  a  philan- 
thropic clergyman  has  complained  that  the  ex- 
aminations served  as  a  screen  behind  which 
Senators  and  Congressmen  could  escape  public 
pressure  and  be  more  autocratic  than  before.* 

If  all  our  legislators  were  like  Sumner,  civil 
service  reform  would  be  quite  unnecessary. 
Others,  especially  Seward  and  Evarts,  have 

*  Rev.  Edward  E.  Hale. 
69 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

made  good  use  of  their  government  patronage; 
but  Sumner  was  the  St.  Louis  of  American 
politics.  In  securing  offices  for  applicants  he 
never  considered  his  own  interest,  and  consid- 
ered that  of  his  party  but  little,  although  in 
this  manner  he  served  his  party  to  the  best 
advantage.  For  the  higher  offices  he  consid- 
ered mainly  the  qualifications  of  the  appointee, 
but  for  minor  positions  also  the  necessities  of 
the  individual.  No  caucus-packers,  or  other 
political  rowdies,  were  ever  endorsed  by  Sum- 
ner, and  the  clerk  or  postmaster  who  had  Sum- 
ner against  his  name  could  depend  on  holding 
his  office  during  good  behavior.  There  are 
those  still  living  who  can  testify  to  the  truth  of 
this. 

The  practice  of  assessing  office-holders  for 
party  purposes  is  a  kind  of  highway  robbery, 
and  ought  to  be  made  a  penitentiary  offence. 

It  is  much  to  be  feared  that  legislative  cor- 
ruption is  growing  to  be  a  serious  evil,  though 
perhaps  more  at  the  capitals  of  certain  States 
than  in  Congress  itself.  The  demand  for  char- 
ters and  privileges  by  mammoth  corporations 
affords  opportunities  in  this  line  such  as  or- 
dinary human  nature  is  not  strong  enough  to 

resist.     The  lobbies  of  legislative  halls  are  a 

70 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

dark  labyrinth  for  the  imagination  to  work  in, 
and  much  suspicion,  just  or  unjust,  is  always 
connected  with  them;  but  when  the  directors 
of  a  large  corporation,  whose  character  is  be- 
yond reproach,  admit  that  they  have  expended 
some  twenty  thousand  dollars  on  the  Legis- 
lature of  moral  Massachusetts  and  decline  to 
give  further  explanation,  it  looks  very  much 
as  if  something  were  wrong.  The  following 
extract  from  Moorfield  Storey's  oration  before 
the  august  assemblage  of  American  lawyers  at 
Saratoga  in  1894  throws  more  light  upon  this 
subject: 

"  Let  me  proceed  at  once  to  the  State  Legislature, 
in  which  the  general  mass  of  our  people  is  most  fairly 
represented.  What  is  their  character?  In  many 
States  certainly  there  has  grown  up  an  irresponsible 
body  between  the  people  and  their  representatives, 
which  undertakes  to  sell  legislation  and  finds  the  busi- 
ness extremely  profitable.  These  merchants  attempt 
first  to  become  acquainted  with  the  State  and  to  single 
out  in  each  representative  or  senatorial  district  the 
men  best  suited  for  their  purpose.  Some  time  before 
the  nominations  are  made  they  approach  those  who 
are  honored  with  their  confidence,  flatter  them  by  sym- 
pathizing with  their  political  aspirations,  and  help 
them  by  influence  or  money  to  secure  their  nomination 
and  election.  The  men  thus  approached  are  often 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

honest,  though  not  necessarily  so;  but  honest  men 
can  be  flattered,  and  where  one  has  received  pecuniary 
or  other  assistance  in  securing  a  coveted  office  he 
naturally  feels  kindly  towards  those  who  have  helped 
him.  Where  the  candidate  is  not  scrupulous,  the  tie 
is  stronger." 

******* 

"  Not  many  years  ago,  in  my  own  State,  a  body  of 
men  seeking  a  street  railroad  charter  received  a  very 
large  sum  of  money  from  a  corporation  which  de- 
sired the  same  right.  The  sellers  had  no  franchise, 
no  property,  no  right  of  any  kind  to  sell;  but  no 
one  doubted  that  the  buyers  acquired  what  they  con- 
sidered fully  worth  the  money  which  they  paid.  What 
they  bought  was  an  organization  which  had  secured 
and  could  control  an  important  body  of  votes, — the 
result  of  a  campaign  in  various  parts  of  the  State  over 
an  issue  which  the  people  never  heard  of,  and  this  had 
a  very  distinct  market  value. 

"  The  Legislature  thus  composed  is  charged  with 
the  duty  of  electing  a  Speaker.  Each  candidate  for 
this  office  wishes  votes.  Each  lobbyist,  each  corpora- 
tion, each  body  of  promoters  wishes  to  control  the 
committees,  which  can  make  or  mar  certain  measures. 
The  candidate  who  is  willing  to  buy  votes  by  promis- 
ing places  on  committees  has  a  great  advantage  in  a 
Legislature  made  up  as  I  have  described,  and  in  many 
cases  the  bargain  is  made.  In  every  case  there  is 
danger  that  such  a  bargain  will  be  made,  and  the 
danger  is  constantly  increasing." 

72 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

Mr.  Storey's  reputation  for  veracity  would 
be  a  sufficient  guarantee  for  this  statement,  if 
the  dignified  audience  to  whom  he  delivered 
it  were  not  so.  He  is  in  a  position  to  know 
whereof  he  speaks;  but  we  are  not  obliged  to 
accept  the  evidence  of  a  single  witness  in  this 
important  case,  for  a  number  of  eminent  law- 
yers in  our  largest  cities  have  testified  to  the 
same  effect.* 

Legislative  corruption  is  a  far  worse  evil 
than  a  weak  or  misguided  executive.  The  lat- 
ter resembles  a  blighted  harvest  which  another 
season  may  remedy;  but  a  corrupt  legislature 
is  like  a  miasma  which  vitiates  the  air  we 
breathe.  From  Austria,  Germany,  France, 
and  England  comes  the  complaint  that  parlia- 
ments do  a  great  deal  of  talking,  but  accom- 
plish little  for  the  public  good.  The  danger 
from  legislative  bodies  resides  in  their  lack 
of  responsibility.  A  constitutional  executive, 
whether  king  or  president,  can  be  pinned  down 
to  something  definite;  but  a  legislature  is  more 
of  the  nature  of  a  quicksand,  as  those  who  have 
had  occasion  to  deal  with  them  can  bear  wit- 
ness. 

That  members  of  Congress  should  speculate 

*  Notably  John  C.  Ropes,  the  author  of  our  best  history  of 
the  War  for  the  Union. 

73 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

in  stocks  whose  value  they  might  afterwards 
influence  by  their  votes  is  not  surprising;  but 
this  practice  has  been  openly  avowed  in  the 
United  States  Senate  as  a  matter  of  no  con- 
cern. 

The  scandal  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  was  not 
so  bad  in  itself  as  the  subsequent  behavior  of 
Congress  in  regard  to  the  affairs  of  the  Union 
Pacific.  The  present  of  a  few  shares  of  stock 
was  intended,  no  doubt,  to  prevent  inter- 
ference; but  it  is  significant  that  after  the  rail- 
road had  come  into  the  possession  of  Jay 
Gould  and  was  exceedingly  prosperous  no  at- 
tempt was  made  by  the  government  to  collect 
its  just  dues;  and  ten  years  later,  after  Gould 
had  sucked  the  orange  and  sold  out  to  honest 
but  ingenuous  men,  Congress  made  an  effort 
to  recover  the  government  indebtedness.  A 
worse  time  could  not  have  been  selected,  for  the 
company  was  now  nearly  bankrupt,  and  a 
forced  sale  of  the  Union  Pacific  property 
finally  wiped  out  the  government  claim.  By 
this  negligent,  if  not  criminal,  procedure  some 
thirty  millions  of  dollars  were  lost  to  the  na- 
tional treasury. 

As  an  example  of  governmental  extrava- 
gance, it  is  only  necessary  to  point  to  our 
enormous  pension  list,  which  in  the  year  1900 

74 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

amounted  to  $140,877,316.02,  or  more  than 
that  of  the  whole  Russian  army  establishment. 
In  other  countries,  after  a  severe  war,  the  pen- 
sion list  gradually  diminishes  until  the  next 
war  increases  it  again,  but  in  the  United  States 
the  pension  list  grows  apace  with  almost  every 
Congress.  There  were  about  three  hundred 
thousand  Union  soldiers  killed  and  wounded  in 
the  war,  and  if  those  who  died  had  all  left 
widows  or  other  persons  dependent  upon  them, 
and  if  all  those  who  were  wounded  still  sur- 
vived, their  pensions  at  forty  dollars  per  month 
would  come  to  about  the  present  government 
item;  but  the  probability  is  that  not  more  than 
seventy  per  cent,  had  relatives  who  had  any  rea- 
son to  expect  a  pension  on  their  account,  and 
of  those  who  were  living  in  1865,  according  to 
life  insurance  tables,  only  about  sixty  per  cent, 
would  survive  until  1900.  From  this  calcu- 
lation, therefore,  it  appears  that  the  United 
States  pension  list  is  nearly  twice  as  expensive 
as  it  ought  to  be;  or,  in  other  words,  some  fifty 
millions  of  dollars  of  the  people's  money  is  mis- 
appropriated every  year.  The  reason  for  this 
is  not  that  there  are  a  great  many  old  soldiers 
deserving  of  assistance,  but  because  the  Grand 
Army  of  veterans  is  a  powerful  political  ma- 
chine which  has  to  be  conciliated.  The  soldiers 

75 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

who  saved  the  Union  for  us  certainly  deserved 
great  consideration,  but  it  is  equally  true  that 
they  have  received  great  consideration.  When 
they  returned  from  the  war  the  best  places 
were  always  reserved  for  them;  and  this  was 
only  right.  The  national  government  should 
not  be  turned  into  a  charitable  institution. 

The  cost  of  the  Philippine  war  of  over  a  hun- 
dred millions  for  the  year  1900  seems  equally 
extravagant.  This  means  a  hundred  thousand 
men,  at  a  thousand  dollars  a  year  each,  to 
suppress  a  guerilla  revolution.  If  the  United 
States  should  happen  to  go  to  war  with  France 
or  Germany,  what  would  it  cost  at  that  rate? 

The  present  writer  once  held  a  civil  office  in 
one  of  our  navy-yards  and  had  an  opportunity 
to  observe  how  the  government  funds  were 
wasted.  Offices  were  multiplied  to  suit  the  de- 
mands of  ward  politicians;  ship-keepers  were 
employed  to  watch  old  hulks  which  had  better 
have  been  sold  for  fire-wood;  foremen  were 
enrolled  without  any  workmen,  and  extra  time 
was  allowed  on  most  frivolous  pretexts,  until 
the  commandant  finally  declared  that  if  he 
found  any  man  working  on  July  4th  he  would 
have  him  discharged.  One  sly  fellow  obtained 
fifty-two  days'  pay  in  a  single  month.  The 

average  work  of  the  civil  officers  was  not  more 

76 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

than  three  hours  per  day;  and  a  neighboring 
grocer  was  well  supported  by  the  sale  of  whis- 
key.* Thousands  of  dollars  were  expended 
in  fitting  up  rooms  for  ordinary  men,  and  some 
months  afterwards  the  ordinary  men  were  all 
discharged.  Six  weeks  previous  to  a  Congres- 
sional election  over  five  hundred  workmen  were 
taken  on  the  pay-rolls,  and  were  discharged 
again  ten  days  after  the  election.  It  is  only 
fair  to  state  that  in  these  respects  there  has 
been  a  decided  improvement  in  navy-yard  man- 
agement during  the  present  administration. 

Foreigners  have  always  noticed  a  certain 
lack  of  style  and  dignity  in  the  presidency  of 
the  United  States  which  does  not  depend  en- 
tirely on  the  occupant.  The  White  House 
counts  for  nothing  in  Washington  society. 

John  Randolph  proved  a  true  prophet  when 
he  predicted  that  the  younger  Adams  would  be 
the  last  President  to  "  wear  the  purple;"  but  it 
was  Jefferson  who  first  set  the  fashion  in  this 
direction  by  fastening  his  horse  to  the  wooden 
fence  which  surrounded  the  Capitol,  an  epi- 
sode which  has  become  historic.  This  would  be 
justly  deemed  an  affectation  in  any  President 
who  should  do  the  same  at  the  present  time; 

*  Appendix  D. 
77 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

but  the  lack  of  a  refined  and  gentlemanly  tone 
still  continues.  To  illustrate  this  point,  let  us 
consider  the  following  telegraphic  despatch 
which  was  sent  to  the  Associated  Press  from 
Washington  in  December,  1883. 

"  This  evening  General  Grant  came  into  Willard's 
Hotel  (Washington),  and  was  looking  over  the  regis- 
ter, when  a  man  jumped  up  from  the  side  benches, 
went  to  General  Grant,  and  slapped  him  on  the 
shoulder  with  a  'Hello,  General!  how  are  you?'  It 
was  Tom  Murphy,  Grant's  former  collector  at  the 
port  of  New  York.  General  Grant  turned  round 
and  shook  hands  with  him,  after  which  they  both 
went  up  to  the  rooms  of  General  Fitz-John  Porter." 

What  humiliation  to  have  been  President  of 
the  United  States  for  eight  years  and  then  to 
be  slapped  on  the  back  by  Tom  Murphy  with- 
out being  able  to  resent  it !  Murphy's  resigna- 
tion was  required  for  the  benefit  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  and  there  is  no  occasion  for  any 
further  consideration  of  him;  but  it  is  hardly 
credible  that  General  Grant  would  have  per- 
mitted such  familiarity  from  any  one  when  he 
was  in  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
The  presidency  would  seem  to  be  demoralizing. 

I  believe  this  evil  may  be  traced  directly  to 
the  common  notion  that  the  President  is  the 
servant  of  the  people. 

78 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

When  Frederick  the  Great  designated  him- 
self as  "the  humble  servant  of  the  state,"  he 
expressed  the  just  relation  between  a  chief 
magistrate  and  the  nation  which  he  governs; 
but  the  hackneyed  phrase,  "  the  servant  of  the 
people,"  is  capable  of  another  and  widely  dif- 
ferent interpretation.  Taken  collectively  and 
objectively,  it  does  not  differ  much  from  Fred- 
erick's statement;  but  taken  subjectively  and 
individually  it  is  simply  degrading.  Washing- 
ton would  have  scorned  to  call  himself  the  ser- 
vant of  the  people.  He  would  have  said,  "  I  am 
here  to  enforce  the  laws,  to  enact  justice,  and 
guard  the  interests  of  the  Republic."  Such  is 
the  difference  between  colonial  America  and  the 
twentieth  century.  To  a  great  majority  of  the 
present  generation  "  the  servant  of  the  people" 
means  the  servant  of  whichever  party  is  in  the 
ascendant,  and  they  expect  the  President  to 
consider  the  interests  of  his  party  before  those 
of  the  Republic.  To  minds  like  Tom  Mur- 
phy's the  phrase  serves  as  an  insidious  flattery, 
which  greatly  increases  their  self-conceit  and 
presumption.  The  President  of  the  United 
States  ought  to  be  at  least  as  dignified,  as  inde- 
pendent, and  as  free  to  choose  his  own  asso- 
ciates as  the  president  of  a  life  insurance  com- 
pany is. 

79 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

A  glaring  instance  of  Congressional  bad 
taste  appeared  in  1870,  when  the  United  States 
Senate  commissioned  an  inexperienced  young 
woman,  called  "  Vinnie  Ream,"  to  model  a 
statue  of  President  Lincoln  for  the  national 
capitol.  Sumner  rose  in  indignation  and  ex- 
posed the  absurdity  of  such  an  appointment, 
but  he  found  few  to  support  him  in  his  honor- 
able position.  He  was  perhaps  the  only  mem- 
ber of  that  body  who  had  made  a  critical  study 
of  sculpture;  but  it  does  not  require  a  knowl- 
edge of  art  to  condemn  such  a  proceeding.  It 
was  a  piece  of  senseless  frivolity.  Vinnie  Ream 
was  a  persistent  lobbyist.  Her  tearful  eyes  and 
coquettish  looks  carried  the  day  against  the  best 
orator  in  Congress.  She  made  the  hideous 
object  which  still  disfigures  our  legislative 
halls,  and  then  disappeared.  Lincoln's  strong, 
rugged  features  required  a  master  hand  to  give 
them  animation,  and  he  certainly  deserved 
better  consideration  from  persons  in  such  high 
position. 

Emerson,  in  his  "  Fortunes  of  the  Republic," 
drew  a  picture  of  the  American  politician  of 
his  time,  which  is  the  more  forcible  as  he  evi- 
dently intended  the  address  as  a  defence  of 
democratic  principles.*  "Positions  on  bank 

*  Appendix  E. 
80 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

and  insurance  boards,"  he  said,  "give  him  an 
easy  swagger.  He  orders  Catawba  wine  at  the 
hotel  to  treat  his  friends,  and  very  soon  he  can- 
not do  without  it."  Jeff  ersonian  principles,  es- 
pecially in  a  self-made  man,  are  inclined  to  give 
an  easy  swagger  and  a  sense  of  importance 
which  is  pleasant  enough  to  his  constituents, 
but  disagreeable  to  those  who  ought  to  be  on 
an  equality  with  him.  The  American  politician 
is  mainly  what  circumstances  make  him.  He 
is  obliged  to  suit  himself  to  the  interests,  ideas, 
and  even  whims  of  his  constituents  as  a  courtier 
does  to  those  of  his  monarch.  Emerson  proba- 
bly described  those  with  whom  he  was  familiar, 
and  a  politician  in  central  New  York  is  a  dif- 
ferent person  from  one  in  Tennessee.  The 
style  of  man  that  is  required  to  carry  a  Con- 
gressional district  will  always  differ  in  differ- 
ent wards  of  a  large  city. 

A  few  years  ago  a  Congressman  from  Mis- 
sissippi had  an  altercation  with  another  Con- 
gressman from  Missouri,  which  resulted  in  a 
physical  conflict,  not  according  to  the  Marquis 
of  Queensberry  rules,  but  with  such  imple- 
ments as  were  ready  to  hand.  It  ended  in  the 
Congressman  from  Missouri  being  struck  by 
a  heavy  glass  inkstand,  which  made  an  ugly 
gash  in  his  head  and  caused  him  to  retire 

81 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

from  the  lists.  No  notice  was  taken  of  this 
rowdy  performance,  however,  either  by  the  po- 
lice or  the  House  of  Representatives.  That 
such  an  affair  should  take  place  between  a  Con- 
gressman from  Ohio  and  a  Congressman  from 
Connecticut  is  hardly  conceivable ;  but  if  a  cap- 
tain in  the  United  States  Army  can  be  dis- 
missed the  service  for  conduct  unbecoming 
an  officer  and  a  gentleman,  there  is  no  good 
reason  why  the  same  rule  should  not  ap- 
ply to  members  of  Congress.  The  difference 
now  is  that  the  etiquette  of  the  army  requires 
that  an  officer  should  be  a  gentleman,  whereas 
a  Congressman  may  or  may  not  be,  according 
to  the  circumstances.  A  high-minded  repre- 
sentative always  indicates  a  constituency  of 
rather  exceptional  culture.* 

We  are  now  in  the  building  period  of  our 
national  existence.  As  soon  as  a  well  organ- 
ized nation  acquires  superfluous  wealth,  it  com- 
mences to  build,  and  the  edifices  which  arise  in 
this  manner  serve  as  monuments  of  its  civili- 
zation. Nor  have  the  people  of  the  United 
States  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  their  city  halls 

*  This  depends,  however,  somewhat  on  the  ability  of  the  indi- 
vidual. For  instance,  Greenhalge  was  the  successor  of  B.  F. 
Butler. 

82 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

and  capitols, — with  the  exception  of  the  Boston 
custom-house  and  a  few  other  architectural 
monstrosities.  The  State-house  at  Hartford 
and  the  State  Assembly  room  at  Albany  are 
quite  worthy  of  a  great  republic;  but  at  the 
same  time  it  must  be  confessed  that  in  this  re- 
spect they  are  not  equal  to  those  of  other  na- 
tions. The  public  buildings  at  Washington 
were  unluckily  designed  when  the  Grecian 
style  happened  to  be  in  fashion,  and,  though 
they  have  a  simple  cyclopean  solidity  of  ap- 
pearance, they  lack  the  elegance  of  the  best 
modern  architecture.  They  cannot  be  com- 
pared favorably  with  the  new  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, the  Louvre  and  palace  of  Versailles,  or 
the  Escurial  at  Madrid.  The  sole  advantage  of 
the  Grecian  style  is  its  adaptation  to  sculptural 
ornament,  and  in  adopting  it  at  Washington 
we  have  simply  enacted  Hamlet  without  the 
Prince  of  Denmark.  The  national  capitol  is 
an  impressive  building  at  a  distance,  but  on  a 
near  approach  we  find  the  central  building  is 
constructed  of  granite  painted  white  to  match 
the  marble  wings,  and  is  rather  too  small  for  a 
just  proportion.  Neither  is  the  Grecian  style 
well  adapted  to  the  uses  of  modern  life.  None 
of  our  great  public  men  have  taken  much  in- 
terest in  this  subject,  and  our  architecture  has 

83 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

been  left  to  legislative  committees,  who  often 
selected  the  architects  on  personal  grounds.  In 
Athens  it  was  not  only  Pericles  who  interested 
himself  in  the  building  of  the  Acropolis,  but 
the  whole  population.  In  the  Athens  of  Amer- 
ica a  tasteless  edifice  like  the  new  court-house 
could  be  erected  without  the  protest  of  a  single 
lawyer.  On  the  other  hand,  Fifth  Avenue  and 
Commonwealth  Avenue,  as  well  as  the  business 
portion  of  Chicago,  are  a  decided  credit  to  the 
country ;  and  this  would  seem  to  show  that  it  is 
a  lack  of  personal  interest  in,  and  supervision 
over,  government  work  which  is  the  cause  of 
its  mediocre  quality. 

The  indirect  influence  of  a  government  is 
far-reaching.  It  is  natural  for  a  people  to  look 
upon  their  rulers  as  models  of  behavior  and  as 
examples  in  various  modes  of  procedure, — the 
more  so  if  elected  by  their  own  instrumentality. 
The  industrious,  frugal,  and  stoical  life  of 
Frederick  the  Great  has  influenced  the  char- 
acter of  the  Prussian  people  to  the  present 
time,  and  in  like  manner  the  off-hand  frontier 
style  of  General  Jackson  produced  an  effect 
on  American  life  long  after  his  death.  It  was 
said  forty  years  ago  that  you  could  distinguish 
an  admirer  of  "  Old  Hickory"  by  the  tilt  of 
his  hat. 

84 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

The  ratio  essendi  of  mammoth  American 
fires  may  be  traced  to  the  fact  that  the  fire  de- 
partments in  our  large  cities  are  organized  on 
democratic  principles.  Such,  at  least,  was  the 
case  in  the  great  Boston  fire  of  1872.  The 
chief  of  the  fire  department  at  that  time  was 
a  carpenter  by  trade,  who  had  been  elected  by 
his  associates  because  he  was  a  good  presiding 
officer  and  could  make  a  taking  off-hand 
speech.  He  was  wholly  incompetent  for  the 
occasion,  and  a  subsequent  fire  in  a  tenement- 
house,  in  which  several  firemen  lost  their  lives, 
proved  him  so.  The  fire  departments  in  our 
large  cities  ought  not  to  be  managed  on  demo- 
cratic principles,  but  on  military  principles; 
and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  danger  to 
republican  institutions  that  might  result  from 
this.  The  chiefs  of  such  fire  departments 
should  be  appointed  by  the  governors  of  the 
States,  and  they  ought  to  be  trained  and  ac- 
complished military  engineers,  who  would  be 
prepared  for  great  emergencies  and  act  with 
suitable  energy  and  decision.  Any  one  who  is 
acquainted  with  the  configuration  of  Boston 
streets  will  recognize  that  the  fire  ought  prop- 
erly to  have  been  extinguished  before  crossing 
Franklin  Street ;  and  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
an  investigation  of  the  Baltimore  fire  will  lead 

85 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

to  some  similar  conclusion.  Great  conflagra- 
tions are  worse  than  war,  and  require  even  a 
more  strenuous  and  energetic  method  of  treat- 
ment. 

Another  unfavorable  consequence  of  the 
democratic  dogma  is  its  influence  on  domestic 
affairs.  It  tends  to  break  down  the  authority 
of  parents  and  to  encourage  children  to  seek  a 
premature  independence.  It  weakens  the  sense 
of  obligation  which  the  different  members  of  a 
family  ought  to  feel  towards  one  another.  It 
introduces  an  element  of  discord  in  family  life. 
Parents  have  been  known  to  take  the  votes  of 
their  children  in  regard  to  important  domestic 
affairs,  although  the  youngest  might  not  be 
above  fourteen,  and  to  congratulate  themselves 
on  this  as  an  illustration  of  democratic  prin- 
ciples. Many  a  young  man  has  gone  to  de- 
struction, or  at  least  has  failed  to  reach  the 
proper  development  of  his  faculties,  because 
his  parents  were  lacking  in  clear  ideas  on  this 
subject.  Influence  is  not  government;  and  it 
has  been  said  before  that  the  family  is  only  a 
picture  of  the  state  on  a  small  scale. 

The  difficulty  of  obtaining  house  servants  in 
certain  portions  of  the  country  is  coming  to  be 
a  serious  matter.  Formerly,  a  good  cook  and 
chamber-maid  could  be  obtained  for  seven  dol- 

86 


x 

\ 

UNIVERSITY    I 


J 
TIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 


lars  a  week,  but  now  they  cost  ten  or  eleven 
dollars, — a  considerable  sum  to  take  out  of  the 
income  of  a  cashier  or  a  professor.  The  reason 
of  this  is  because  the  daughters  of  American 
farmers  and  mechanics  think  themselves  too 
fine  to  go  out  to  service,  where  they  would 
learn  so  much  that  would  be  improving  and  ad- 
vantageous to  them  when  they  came  to  have 
households  of  their  own. 

The  demand  is  continually  increasing,  while 
the  supply  is  a  constant  quantity.  Irish  girls 
come  to  America  and  remain  until  they  have 
saved  one  or  two  hundred  dollars  (which  they 
can  do  easily  enough,  for  their  expenses  are 
almost  nothing),  and  then  return  to  their  own 
country  to  get  married.  What  are  American 
girls  of  the  same  class  doing  meanwhile?  They 
flock  to  the  cities  and  go  into  shops,  where  they 
learn  nothing  that  is  of  any  service  to  them, 
and  at  the  same  time  are  exposed  to  great 
temptations,  to  which  only  too  many  of  them 
succumb.  The  old  adage,  that  a  haughty  spirit 
goes  before  a  fall,  receives  here  a  painful  and 
humiliating  exemplification. 

For  the  same  reason  it  has  become  equally 
difficult  to  obtain  trustworthy  nurses  for  chil- 
dren; and  as  for  wet-nurses  the  medical  pro- 
fession has  quite  given  up  the  hope  of  obtain- 

87 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

ing  them.  In  Europe  sufficiently  good  nurses 
of  both  classes  are  always  to  be  had,  even  such 
as  are  suited  to  the  requirements  of  a  royal 
family ;  but  an  American  mother,  who  may  be 
unable  for  valid  reasons  to  nurse  her  own  child, 
has  to  trust  to  its  being  reared  by  artificial 
means.  This  would  seem  to  indicate  a  lack  of 
humanity  in  the  community  at  large. 

REFORM 

The  one  universal  law  is  change. 

No  matter  how  well  founded  a  government 
may  be  and  how  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
its  people,  changes  are  sure  to  take  place  either 
in  the  form  or  in  the  manner  of  its  administra- 
tion; and,  if  this  does  not  take  place  gradually, 
it  will  finally  come  in  a  revolutionary  manner. 
The  Church  of  Rome  has  the  oldest  govern- 
ment in  Europe,  and  its  form  of  administration 
has  changed  little  to  outward  appearance  since 
the  eleventh  century;  yet  the  Catholicism  of 
Leo  XIII.  was  not  that  of  Pius  IX.,  and  that 
of  Pius  IX.  was  not  the  same  as  the  Popes  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  The  Catholic  faith  has 
changed  with  every  ecumenical  council  since 
the  time  of  Charlemagne,  and  the  Christian 
religion  has  changed  with  it.  Religious  and 
political  institutions  are  but  the  outward  sym- 

88 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

bol  of  the  inner  man,  and  if  they  do  not  keep 
pace  with  his  internal  development  he  tears 
them  off  as  a  snake  does  his  old  skin. 

This  is  peculiarly  true  of  the  United  States 
of  America.  Our  external  forms  are  much  the 
same  as  in  1789,  but  internally  as  a  nation  we 
have  changed  in  a  greater  degree  than  any 
people  on  this  earth.  Never  since  the  dark 
ages  has  the  internal  constitution  of  a  nation 
changed  so  much.  In  1789  we  were  almost  a 
homogeneous  people,  and  almost  without  ex- 
ception Protestants ;  but  during  the  last  hun- 
dred years  we  have  absorbed  an  enormous  for- 
eign population,  almost  wholly  of  the  laboring 
classes,  and  not  the  best  of  those.  The  negroes 
have  become  citizens  and  have  increased  enor- 
mously in  number.  Never  before  has  a  nation 
been  composed  of  such  diverse  ingredients. 
Only  the  Austrian  Empire  can  be  compared 
with  the  United  States  in  this  respect;  and  in 
Austria  the  various  races  have  each  a  separate 
location  and  are  not  much  mingled  together. 
Neither  has  the  Austrian  government  the  bur- 
den of  eight  million  negroes  to  deal  with.  In 
1783  that  rare  sovereign,  Joseph  II.,  endeav- 
ored to  establish  a  uniform  code  of  laws  and 
civil  institutions  over  all  his  dominions.  But 
this  was  found  impracticable,  for  criminal 

89 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

procedures  which  worked  well  in  Bohemia 
were  no  better  suited  to  the  less  intelligent  Sla- 
vonic races  than  American  criminal  law  is  to 
our  frontier  settlements.  A  similar  trouble  ex- 
ists at  the  present  time  in  the  Austrian  Parlia- 
ment, which  of  all  legislative  bodies  is  the  most 
incongruous  and  difficult  for  a  ministry  to  deal 
with.  Here,  in  addition  to  the  negroes,  we 
have  an  Irish  Catholic  population  which  enjoys 
all  our  national  advantages  and  yet  persists  in 
remaining  foreign  to  us  in  sentiment  and  in- 
terest. They  are  a  nation  within  a  nation. 
The  socialistic  agitators  of  Europe  who  fly  to 
us  for  refuge  are  another  disturbing  element. 

How  long  the  people  of  the  United  States 
will  be  able  to  control  these  divergent  forces  is 
an  enigmatic  problem.  Evidently,  as  the  popu- 
lation increases,  the  more  difficult  it  will  be- 
come to  harmonize  them.  It  seems  as  if  within 
the  coming  fifty  years  our  primitive  institu- 
tions must  undergo  a  change.  If  our  minds 
are  prepared  for  such  an  eventuality,  and  we 
are  ready  to  direct  the  movement  when  the  time 
arrives,  it  will  no  doubt  be  a  change  for  the 
better;  but  if  we  heedlessly  drift  into  it  and 
permit  ourselves  to  be  surprised  by  an  unthink- 
ing popular  cataclysm,  the  change  will  proba- 
bly be  for  the  worse. 

90 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

American  writers  when  they  rail  at  monarch- 
ical institutions  do  not  realize  that  the  form  of 
government  that  a  nation  assumes  depends 
largely  on  its  geographical  position.  The  un- 
impeded development  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment in  England  during  the  Middle  Ages 
could  not  have  taken  place  in  France  or  Ger- 
many at  the  same  time,  owing  to  political  com- 
plications; and  if  the  United  States  were  situ- 
ated like  Russia,  with  Turkey  on  one  border 
and  a  host  of  Tartars  on  another,  it  is  doubtful 
if  its  present  government  could  endure  the 
strain. 

As  a  rule,  American  editors  show  a  degree 
of  sensitiveness  in  regard  to  monarchy  which 
suggests  a  lack  of  confidence  in  their  own  insti- 
tutions. There  is  no  occasion  for  this.  Now 
and  then  one  meets  with  a  college  professor, 
an  artist,  or  an  old  Boston  tory  who  openly 
professes  his  preference  for  the  English  form 
of  government,  royal  family  and  all ;  but  these 
are  like  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  Gamalial  Brad- 
ford once  urged  the  adoption  of  certain  points 
in  the  English  constitution,  such  as  giving  seats 
to  Cabinet  officers  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, but  this  in  the  case  of  a  hostile  Speaker 
would  make  their  position  one  of  intolerable 
disadvantage.  It  could  not  be  introduced  with- 

91 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

out  bringing  the  rest  of  the  British  system 
along  with  it.  During  Grant's  administration 
there  was  a  slight  aroma  of  imperialism  in  the 
air,  but  it  disappeared  with  the  first  change  of 
the  wind. 

Demosthenes  admitted  that  there  were  cer- 
tain disadvantages  in  popular  governments, 
but  he  said,  "  We  prefer  to  suffer  these  rather 
than  to  lose  the  control  of  our  own  affairs." 
Monarchy  is  a  mediaeval  institution,  and  its 
roots  extend  deep  into  the  past.  Mediaeval  in- 
stitutions have  never  existed  in  the  Western 
Hemisphere,  and  a  monarchy  transplanted 
from  Europe  would  be  as  short-lived  as  a  tree 
without  its  tap  root.  The  attempt  of  Napo- 
leon III.  in  Mexico  is  a  case  in  point. 

There  are  some  characteristics  of  the  Eng- 
lish system  which  it  would  be  well  to  imitate  if 
we  could  do  so  without  also  imitating  its  de- 
fects. The  British  government  has  a  dual 
character.  It  is  an  excellent  government  for 
England  and  Scotland;  but  if  Froude's  state- 
ments are  to  be  credited,  it  has  proved  thus  far 
a  bad  government  for  Ireland,  and  often  a 
highly  vicious  government  abroad.  What 
other  nation  has  shown  such  an  unprincipled 
foreign  policy  during  the  past  hundred  years 
— from  Pitt's  complicity  in  the  conspiracy 

92 


RATIONAL,  REPUBLICANISM 

against  Napoleon's  life,  to  Disraeli's  support 
of  the  Turkish  massacres  in  Bulgaria?  The 
English  people  were  of  course  innocent  enough 
of  these  proceedings. 

There  are  a  good  number,  and  among  them 
many  persons  of  dignified  character,  who  favor 
the  adoption  of  John  Stuart  Mill's  doctrine 
of  female  suffrage,  both  as  a  natural  right  and 
a  reformatory  movement. 

It  is  difficult  to  see  what  advantage  could 
be  gained  by  this  extension  of  suffrage,  and  it 
would  certainly  be  an  onerous  duty  not  only 
on  the  class  of  women  whom  we  call  ladies,  but 
also  on  a  large  proportion  of  wives  and  mothers 
in  general.  There  are  women  in  every  com- 
munity who  are  as  well  qualified  to  vote  and 
take  as  lively  an  interest  in  public  affairs  as 
most  of  the  men,  but  these  are  the  exception, 
not  the  rule,  and  they  would  easily  be  outnum- 
bered by  the  dull-witted  washerwoman  and  the 
frivolous  shop-girls,  not  to  mention  other  friv- 
olous members  of  society.  In  bad  weather  it 
is  a  sufficiently  burdensome  duty  to  many  of 
the  other  sex.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  fran- 
chise is  an  inalienable  right  of  manhood,  there 
is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  the  right  of 
woman  as  well.  If  the  major  premise  is  ad- 
mitted, the  conclusion  follows  as  a  matter  of 

93 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

course.  Abstract  theories  are  of  small  use  in 
practical  politics. 

The  danger  would  be  that  when  women  vote 
as  a  class  and  for  class  interests  they  would 
want  half  of  the  offices,  including  the  Vice- 
Presidency.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that 
the  practice  would  have  a  coarsening  effect. 
It  is  part  of  a  woman's  nature  to  shrink  from 
general  publicity,  and  this  feeling  ought  to 
be  encouraged  and  not  stifled  in  them.  That 
female  suffrage  apparently  works  favorably 
in  Wyoming,  on  the  outskirts  of  civilization, 
is  no  evidence  that  it  would  prove  a  success  in 
Ohio  or  New  York.* 

It  would  seem  only  just  that  women  who 
pay  taxes  on  real  estate  should  have  a  voice  in 
the  distribution  of  the  public  funds,  and  there 
is  no  good  reason  why  this  should  not  be  done 
by  power  of  attorney;  similarly,  men  who  are 
unable  to  go  to  the  polls  on  account  of  sickness 
or  other  serious  disability. 

The  only  logical  remedy  is  to  restrict  the  suf- 
frage. By  making  the  ballot  common  property 
we  cheapen  its  value.  Let  it  become  an  honor 
and  a  privilege, — the  privilege  of  a  good  citi- 
zen. Since  our  government  was  founded,  the 

*  John  Stuart  Mill's  idolization  of  his  wife  cannot  be  com- 
mended on  rational  grounds.    See  G.  Brandes'  Essay. 

94 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

country  has  been  filled  up  with  an  immense 
mass  of  immigrants  who  neither  understand 
nor  take  an  interest  in  our  institutions.  Those 
of  them  who  appreciate  the  blessings  of  a 
popular  government  and  are  willing  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  right  conditions  for  it,  may 
well  become  part  and  parcel  of  us ;  but  if  they 
cling  to  their  foreign  notions,  consider  them- 
selves foreigners,  and  look  upon  our  govern- 
ment with  hostility  as  the  anarchists  do,  there 
is  no  reason  why  they  should  have  a  voice  in 
determining  elections  and  deciding  public  ques- 
tions. Make  the  suffrage  a  prize  to  which  they 
can  attain  by  industry,  good  behavior,  and  self  - 
improvement,  and  they  will  not  only  value  it 
highly  and  use  it  with  greater  discretion,  but 
they  will  feel  more  respect  for  the  government 
which  protects  and  befriends  them. 

It  is  useless  to  try  to  purify  the  stream  while 
the  fountain  is  defiled.  Ignorance  and  dulness 
are  a  power  in  the  state  as  well  as  intelligence 
and  education.  The  perpetual  necessity  of 
condescending  to  the  masses  must  affect  poli- 
tics unfavorably  at  the  very  start.  The  Presi- 
dent feels  it  as  he  sits  in  the  White  House,  and 
it  becomes  a  drag  on  public  business  like  that 
which  tires  out  the  captured  salmon.  Public 
addresses  will  always  play  a  prominent  part 

95 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

in  popular  government,  and  if  it  be  true,  as 
George  Eliot  says,  "  that  no  man  ever  retained 
his  influence  over  a  mixed  multitude  except  by 
lowering  his  moral  standard,"  we  must  also  ad- 
mit the  converse  of  this,  that  the  more  select 
his  audience  the  more  elevated  the  discourse  of 
the  speaker  will  necessarily  be.  The  fine  tone 
of  Demosthenes  and  the  elegance  of  Cicero 
indicate  the  superior  quality  of  the  audiences 
which  they  addressed.  If  this  were  carried  too 
far,  the  means  would  of  course  defeat  the  end, 
and  the  result  would  be  an  oligarchy  instead  of 
a  republic.  There  is  no  danger  of  this,  how- 
ever, so  long  as  all  respectable  citizens  are  in- 
cluded in  the  voting  list. 

How  then  are  we  to  distinguish  between  re- 
spectable citizens  and  those  who  are  not? 

This  can  only  be  done  approximately,  just 
as  we  decide  the  age  of  manhood  at  twenty-one 
and  of  womanhood  at  eighteen.  In  Spain  the 
age  of  manhood  is  fixed  at  twenty-five. 

In  the  first  place,  all  men  of  decidedly  bad 
character  ought  to  be  excluded.  Inebriates, 
and  persons  convicted  in  the  courts  of  small 
offences,  ought  to  be  disfranchised  for  a  term 
of  years,  as  they  were  formerly  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts colony.  To  these  might  be  added 
gamblers  and  other  persons  of  dubious  repu- 

96 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

tations,  like  James  Fiske,  Jr.,  who  may  not, 
however,  come  within  the  range  of  the  law. 

Consider  what  a  difference  such  a  law  would 
make  in  New  York  City  alone.  No  more 
Tammany  rings  to  harass  the  weary  taxpayers. 
Under  the  present  system  no  discrimination  is 
made  between  honest  men  and  scoundrels,  and 
a  graduate  of  the  penitentiary  can  vote  the 
week  after  he  is  discharged,  if  he  only  finds 
some  one  kind  enough  to  pay  his  poll-tax. 

A  prominent  Chicago  politician  who  assisted 
at  the  nomination  of  Garfield  in  1880  said  to 
me  once: 

"  No  man  ought  to  vote  who  cannot  read  and  write, 
and  none  should  vote  at  municipal  elections  except 
those  who  own  real  estate." 

I  think  such  opinions  are  more  common 
among  our  public  men  than  is  generally  sup- 
posed ;  but  they  do  not  dare  to  state  them. 

A  reading  and  writing  qualification  would 
be  hardly  sufficient ;  for  a  man  who  reads  noth- 
ing but  vulgar  newspapers  and  dime  novels 
might  be  less  fitted  to  understand  politics  than 
one  who  could  not  read  at  all.  Hamilton,  in 
his  address  to  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1787,  advocated  the  adoption  of  a  suffrage 
based  on  the  possession  of  land ;  and  this,  when 

7  97 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

land  was  so  cheap  and  plenty,  would  not  seem 
to  have  been  unfair,  for  it  is  only  a  local  habi- 
tation which  can  give  a  substantial  position  in 
society.  But  at  the  present  time  such  a  law 
would  be  too  favorable  to  the  wealthier  classes. 
The  English  five-pound  franchise,  which 
served  its  purposes  in  a  rough,  uneven  way, 
has  been  replaced  by  Gladstone  with  freehold 
suffrage,  which  opens  the  ballot  to  every  renter 
of  a  tenement,  no  matter  how  ignorant  he  may 
be,  and  excludes  the  higher  class  of  house  ser- 
vants, who  in  England  are  more  intelligent 
than  most  of  the  farmers.  It  would  not  seem 
to  be  difficult  to  devise  a  method  that  would  be 
more  practical  and  at  the  same  time  more  just 
than  either  of  these  plans. 

In  1893  a  law  was  proposed  in  Mississippi  to 
solve  the  negro  problem  requiring  that  every 
voter  should  be  able  to  read  and  understand  the 
State  constitution.  This  was  not  adopted, 
however,  because  it  was  found  that  too  many 
white  persons  would  be  disfranchised  in  this 
manner. 

Another  objection  to  such  a  plan  would  be 
that  it  might  afford  too  much  latitude  to  the 
judgment  of  the  registration  board.  An  ex- 
amination in  arithmetic  and  American  history 
might  be  a  more  exact  and  fair  method  of  de- 

98 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

termining  the  intellectual  condition  of  a  can- 
didate. If  the  examinations  were  conducted 
with  dignity,  they  would  have  a  good  effect  in 
stimulating  the  ambition  of  the  applicants  to  a 
better  understanding  of  public  affairs.  It  is 
fortunate  that  all  the  advantages  of  life  are 
not  as  common  as  air  and  water. 

Of  course  the  larger  portion  of  the  com- 
munity would  not  be  obliged  to  pass  such  an 
examination.  All  professional  persons  would 
be  exempt  from  it,  as  well  as  merchants,  shop- 
keepers, and  their  clerks,  and  in  those  States 
which  have  a  well-grounded  school  system,  the 
certificate  of  a  grammar-school  teacher  would 
serve  the  same  purpose.  All  owners  of  real 
estate  to  the  extent  of  eight  hundred  or  a  thou- 
sand dollars  ought  to  have  the  franchise,  for 
they  are  most  directly  interested  in  the  assess- 
ment and  expenditure  of  taxes.  Master  me- 
chanics likewise  should  have  it,  and  all  persons 
holding  positions  which  indicate  character  and 
responsibility,  for  such  are  among  the  most  ju- 
dicious members  of  society.  It  might  be  pre- 
sumed that  a  gardener  who  is  acquainted  with 
the  culture  of  different  plants  would  also  be 
well-informed  on  other  matters,  yet  according 
to  the  present  English  system  he  and  others 
like  him  would  not  be  permitted  to  vote  unless 

99 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

they  lived  in  tenements  for  which  they  paid  a 
direct  rent. 

This  is  a  mere  sketch  in  outline  drawing, 
only  intended  to  demonstrate  how  a  restricted 
suffrage  may  be  accomplished.  That  it  seems 
difficult  of  accomplishment  at  the  present  time 
is  not  to  be  denied ;  but  when  we  consider  how 
impossible  negro  suffrage  appeared  in  1860, 
and  how  readily  ten  years  later  it  was  carried 
through  with  all  the  different  forms  of  consti- 
tutional amendment,  one  can  hardly  doubt  that 
a  more  conservative  reform  might  be  accom- 
plished without  great  difficulty.  The  practical 
point  in  such  cases  is  to  take  advantage  of  the 
right  moment. 

First,  however,  in  order  to  open  the  way,  the 
American  people  must  turn  their  backs  on  the 
nineteenth  century  with  all  its  solecisms  and 
illusions.  These  may  have  had  a  temporary 
value,  but  they  were  not  based  on  the  eternal 
order,  and  their  time  has  long  since  passed. 
The  people  of  the  United  States  are  not  lack- 
ing in  good  sense ;  and  if  they  once  clear  their 
heads  of  the  notion  that  government  exists  for 
the  special  benefit  of  the  individual  and  that 
the  justification  of  government  depends  on  the 
consent  of  the  governed,  and  shall  substitute 
for  these  formulas  the  ideal  of  a  government 

100 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

as  set  forth  in  the  preamble  to  the  national  con- 
stitution, then  sooner  or  later  the  change  will 
come  of  its  own  volition.  The  effect  on  na- 
tional character,  which  must  result  from  con- 
sidering government  a  moral  necessity,  is  by 
no  means  to  be  despised. 

In  this  way  alone  can  the  race  problem  be 
settled,  by  placing  all  races  on  an  equality  of 
intelligence  and  respectability ;  and  if  the  race 
problem  is  not  solved  in  a  rational  and  peace- 
able manner  it  will  finally  end  in  violence  and 
bloodshed. 

The  only  way  in  which  large  American  cities 
can  secure  a  just  and  efficient  municipal  gov- 
ernment is  by  restricting  the  suffrage  to  such 
persons  as  have  a  serious  interest  in  the  conduct 
of  municipal  affairs. 

It  may  be  the  only  way  by  which  the  tariff 
can  be  adjusted  in  an  equitable  manner  to  the 
various  sections  of  this  vast  country;  so  that 
the  Southern  States  shall  not  suffer  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Northern,  and  the  farmer  be 
placed  on  an  equality  with  the  manufac- 
turer. 

There  are  many  like  Mr.  George  P.  Brad- 
ford, the  last  survivor  of  the  Brook  Farm  ex- 
periment, who  are  afraid  that  any  limitation 
of  the  suffrage  would  be  likely  to  result  in  class 


101 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

privileges  and  class  legislation.  It  is  difficult 
to  imagine  how  this  could  happen  in  a  country 
with  a  small  standing  army,  and  where  the 
land-owners  may  be  numbered  by  millions. 
The  political  conditions  which  resulted  in  the 
privileged  classes  of  Europe  during  the  past 
three  centuries  had  their  beginning  far  back 
in  the  early  part  of  the  Christian  era.  Similar 
effects  may  be  produced  at  a  future  time  from 
different  causes,  but  what  those  causes  may  be 
it  is  now  impossible  to  predict.  The  changes 
suggested  here  would  tend  to  strengthen  rather 
than  weaken  the  influence  of  the  large  middle 
class  who  always  form  the  chief  depositary  of 
power  in  a  republic;  and  I  think  we  can  safely 
trust  to  them  the  preservation  of  their  rights. 
What  form  of  government  will  exist  in  Amer- 
ica two  or  three  centuries  hence  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible to  calculate,  but  we  of  to-day  can  best 
provide  for  the  welfare  of  our  descendants  by 
thinking  sensibly  and  acting  according  to  our 
thought. 

It  is  a  common  peculiarity  of  democracies  to 
extol  their  favorite  doctrines  the  more  loudly 
while  they  complain  of  the  evils  resulting  from 
their  practice.  This  does  not  apply,  however, 
to  the  author  of  the  following  extract,  who  was 
the  most  distinguished  American  journalist  of 

102 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

his  time,  and  yet  has  always  been  thoroughly 
republican  in  the  best  sense. 

"  Do  not  these  superficial  defects  go  deeper?  Has 
there  not  been  a  constant  tendency,  developed  by 
democratic  institutions  thus  far  everywhere,  in  an- 
cient times  as  well  as  our  own,  to  level  down,  sometimes 
to  pare  off,  individualism  in  character  or  action; 
often  to  resent  and  pull  down  superiority,  to  encour- 
age mediocrity,  and  to  try  to  believe,  if  not  to  avow, 
as  a  necessary  article  of  true  democratic  faith,  that 
mediocrity  is  equal  to  the  best  and  just  as  good? 
Naturally,  this  tendency,  which  a  republic  generally 
seems  to  develop,  will  lead  to  treating  men  not  as  in- 
dividuals, but  in  great  masses.  It  thus  invades  the 
field  of  education  and  converts  the  noblest  work  con- 
fided to  man — the  moulding,  one  might  almost  say 
the  very  creation,  of  individual  character — into  high- 
pressure  arrangements  for  the  production  of  scholars 
by  wholesale ;  into  schemes  to  shape  and  manufacture 
characters  and  lives  like  watches  or  steam-engines  by 
machinery."  * 

This  fine  statement  derives  additional  co- 
gency from  the  popular  character  and  political 
experience  of  the  writer.  It  is  a  common  dem- 
ocratic calumny  to  attribute  aristocratic  ten- 

*An  address  at  Leland  Stanford,  Jr.,  University  by  Hon. 
Whitelaw  Reid. 

103 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

dencies  to  political  opponents,  but  that  has 
never  happened  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Reid. 

When  a  nation  or  a  people  falls  into  a 
mechanical  mode  of  thinking,  all  intellectual 
progress  is  arrested;  art  languishes,  literature 
declines,  and  religion  becomes  a  desiccated 
form.  The  Catholic  clergy  are  an  example  of 
this,  but  there  are  among  them  many  men  of 
earnest  feeling  and  strong  individuality,  for 
their  mode  of  life  develops  these  qualities.  But 
a  mechanic  character  is  in  a  measure  death  in 
life,  and  a  people  that  falls  into  this  rut  may 
go  on  for  centuries,  like  the  Chinese  or  the 
Byzantine  Greeks,  but  they  have  no  longer  a 
place  in  history. 

The  worst  of  all  is  the  sophistical  habit  which 
is  unconsciously  engendered  by  continually  de- 
fending a  false  position. 

There  are  ebb  and  flood  tides  in  political 
faith  as  there  are  in  religious  belief.  At  the 
commencement  of  the  fifteenth  century  there 
was  a  fine  constitutional  government  in  Spain, 
but  human  nature  became  captivated  with  the 
divine  right  of  kings,  and  Charles  II.  crushed 
Spanish  liberty  with  scarcely  a  murmur  of  op- 
position. Now  the  majority  believe  just  as 
firmly  in  the  divine  right  of  voting.  They  pin 
their  faith  on  universal  suffrage;  and  if  you 

104 


RATIONAL  REPUBLICANISM 

question  the  wisdom  of  it  they  lose  their  tem- 
per and  are  unwilling  to  discuss  the  question 
in  a  fair  spirit.  They  consider  the  ballot  an 
inalienable  right,  like  life,  liberty,  and  happi- 
ness. No  one  questions  the  right  of  men  to  life 
and  liberty  so  long  as  they  obey  just  laws,  and 
are  not  required  for  military  protection;  but 
no  people  have  a  right  to  make  fools  of  them- 
selves by  interfering  in  matters  which  they  can- 
not understand.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  in 
due  time  the  opinions  of  mankind  will  change, 
—that  is  the  distinction  between  the  European 
races  and  all  others, — and  when  the  change 
comes  the  question  is,  whether  it  will  be  for 
better  or  for  worse ;  for  a  rational  republic  and 
a  progressive  civilization,  or  for  Csesarism  and 
national  decline. 

CONCLUSION 

The  human  body  requires  constant  regenera- 
tion, and  if  anything  interferes  to  prevent  this 
for  a  length  of  time,  the  man  or  woman  sickens, 
and  either  dies  or  passes  through  an  abnormal 
condition  which  resembles  those  phases  of  his- 
tory that  are  called  revolution.  In  order  to 
maintain  a  healthy  physique,  it  is  necessary  to 
make  a  continuous  effort  to  preserve  good 
health,  and  even  to  improve  it. 

105 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

Something  like  this  happens  in  the  history 
of  nations.  Unless  there  is  a  constant  effort 
to  improve  the  laws  and  adapt  them  to  the 
varying  conditions  of  civilization,  the  political 
condition  of  a  state  will  become  unsound,  and 
historical  phenomena  will  take  place  like  those 
in  England  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  and  in 
France  at  the  close  of  the  last  century.  It  is 
the  duty  of  modern  civilization  to  avoid  such 
catastrophes,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  a 
continuous  process  of  regeneration,  by  a  seri- 
ous consideration  of  existing  conditions  and 
the  application  of  well-tested  principles  to  such 
evils  as  are  apparent  in  them. 


106 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

SENATOR  LODGE  deserves  well  of  his  country, 
not  less  for  his  popular  biography  of  Hamil- 
ton than  for  his  energetic  efforts  at  the  St. 
Louis  convention  of  1896  to  bring  his  party 
to  the  adoption  of  a  gold  standard.  At  the 
time  of  Alexander  Hamilton's  death  it  may 
fairly  be  said  that  he  was  the  most  celebrated 
man  in  the  civilized  world.  In  the  United 
States,  it  is  true,  he  was  overshadowed  with 
the  prestige  of  Washington,  but  as  an  intel- 
lect he  was  generally  admitted  to  be  without  a 
rival,  and  in  Europe  he  had  the  field  wholly 
to  himself.  Only  the  youthful  victor  of  Ma- 
rengo  might  dispute  with  him  there.  Yet 
calumny  and  neglect  had  so  dimmed  his  repu- 
tation that  twenty  years  ago  there  were  not 
a  few  intelligent  Americans  who  never  had 
heard  Hamilton's  name,  or  could  not  place  him 
in  their  memories.  Senator  Lodge  has  rescued 
him  from  this  oblivion  and  set  forth  his  great 
achievements  as  a  statesman  and  his  character 
as  a  man  in  such  a  shining  light  that  ignorance 
can  no  longer  avail  as  an  excuse.  He  has 

brought  Hamilton  down  from  the  clouds,  so 

107 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

that  he  is  now  within  the  reach  of  every  school- 
boy. 

For  Alexander  Hamilton  was  a  genius  of 
the  highest  type,  and  finds  his  place  with  world- 
famous  heroes  like  Socrates,  St.  Paul,  Charle- 
magne, Luther,  and  Cromwell.  It  is  possible 
that  he  might  have  been  a  great  conqueror  like 
Caesar  and  his  namesake,  Alexander  of  Mace- 
don;  but  we  do  not  compare  him  to  them, 
because  Hamilton's  work  was  wholly  of  a  con- 
structive character;  and  we  cannot  attribute 
to  him  those  dubious  motives  which  are  com- 
monly associated  with  the  names  of  Caesar  and 
Alexander.  The  task  he  accomplished  was  not 
less  difficult  than  that  of  Cromwell,  but  he 
only  sacrificed  one  human  life  to  it,  and  that 
was  his  own. 

This  is  chiefly  the  reason  why  his  celebrity 
has  diminished  instead  of  increased  with  time. 
The  world  remembers  best  those  who  have 
made  the  most  noise  in  it ;  and  the  high-minded 
Aurelius  has  never  been  half  so  well  remem- 
bered as  the  infamous  Nero.  Hamilton's  work 
was  so  noiseless,  modest,  and  unobtrusive  that 
it  is  much  to  the  credit  of  the  age  he  lived  in 
that  this  work  was  recognized  at  its  true  value. 
He  was  not  the  victor  of  a  single  defensive 

battle  like  Jackson;  his  name  is  not  found  in 

1 08 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  long  list  of  the  nation's  Presidents;  nor 
did  he  have  the  great  senatorial  career  of  Clay 
and  Sumner.  After  Washington's  death  he 
was  the  nominal  head  of  the  United  States 
army,  but  the  position  was  so  purely  nominal 
that  he  did  not  even  wear  uniform.  The  only 
important  office  that  he  ever  held  was  that  of 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and,  although  he 
made  this  next  in  importance  to  the  presi- 
dency, it  is  not  a  position  that  usually  attracts 
a  great  deal  of  attention.  His  whole  public 
activity  was  comprised  within  a  space  of  ten 
years. 

It  is  also  true  that  Hamilton  made  powerful 
enemies  who  never  ceased  to  calumniate  him 
so  long  as  they  lived,  and  were  echoed  by  a 
host  of  small  parasitical  writers  such  as  always 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  power  and  position. 
This  is  so  commonly  the  case  with  really  great 
men  that  it  may  almost  be  taken  as  a  test  of 
true  greatness.  Washington  escaped  it  be- 
cause he  was  never  a  political  leader.  Shake- 
speare escaped  it  by  his  perpetual  incognito; 
but  Cromwell  and  Milton  were  vilified  for 
more  than  a  century;  and  how  Bismarck  has 
been  calumniated  in  our  own  time !  Bismarck's 
case  is  almost  precisely  like  Hamilton's.  His 
worst  enemies  have  never  been  able  to  point 

109 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

at  a  single  act  in  his  public  or  private  life  that 
militates  against  the  character  of  an  honorable 
man.  Yet  the  hue  and  cry  still  continue.  The 
effectiveness  of  a  statesman's  policy  may  usu- 
ally be  measured  by  the  antagonism  it  arouses ; 
and  so  long  as  elections  can  be  carried  by 
wholesale  mendacity  men  will  be  found  will- 
ing to  stoop  to  its  use. 

Hamilton  was  charged  with  being  an  aris- 
tocrat,— a  common  accusation  to  bring  against 
a  gentleman  in  all  times  and  places.  He  was 
accused  of  being  a  monarchist  because  he  did 
not  believe  in  the  political  gospel  of  Rousseau. 
He  was  called  an  English  sympathizer,  which 
in  those  days  was  considered  worse  than  athe- 
ism, because  he  objected  to  an  alliance  with 
the  unstable  and  chaotic  French  republic.  He 
was  accused  of  falsifying  the  accounts  of  the 
Treasury  and  of  bribing  members  of  Con- 
gress. All  these  charges,  except  the  last,  are 
childish  and  absurd,  but  they  had  their  influ- 
ence on  the  ignorant  and  unthinking. 

Senator  Lodge  says: 

"  The  attempt  to  prove  Hamilton  dishonest  .  .  . 
was  headed  by  Giles,  a  rough,  brazen,  loud-voiced 
Virginian,  fit  for  any  bad  work,  no  matter  how 
desperate." 

no 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

Suffering  under  a  similar  accusation,  Scipio 
Africanus,  the  savior  of  Italy,  tore  in  pieces 
the  accounts  that  would  have  vindicated  him 
and  went  into  voluntary  exile, — happier  in  any 
place  than  among  his  ungrateful  countrymen. 
Hamilton  curbed  his  anger  and  demanded  an 
investigation,  which,  after  months  of  unneces- 
sary labor,  completely  vindicated  him  and 
turned  the  tables  on  his  malignant  opponents. 
The  story  of  an  early  love  affair,  which  he  con- 
fided to  Madison,  and  which  the  latter  divulged 
for  political  purposes,  is  perhaps  less  to  Ham- 
ilton's discredit  than  to  that  of  the  friend  who 
betrayed  him. 

Long  after  Hamilton's  death  Jefferson 
made  the  statement  that  "  at  a  small  dinner- 
party" during  Washington's  administration 
some  one  made  the  remark  that,  "  if  it  were 
not  for  the  bribery  and  corruption  in  the  Eng- 
lish government  it  would  be  the  best  in  the 
world,"  and  that  Hamilton  replied,  "  without 
bribery  and  corruption  the  English  govern- 
ment would  not  be  a  practical  success."  This 
story  has  rather  a  suspicious  sound  of  itself, 
and  coming  from  the  wily  Virginian  does  not 
improve  its  character.  Where  the  dinner- 
party was  and  who  the  other  guests  were  have 
never  been  revealed,  nor  have  other  witnesses 

in 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

appeared  to  corroborate  the  assertion.  Even 
if  Hamilton  spoke  as  reported,  the  remark  is 
no  evidence  that  he  considered  bribery  indis- 
pensable to  the  practical  administration  of  our 
government;  yet  this  anecdote  has  been  intro- 
duced into  a  history  of  the  United  States  to 
illustrate  the  difference  between  the  high- 
minded  Jefferson  and  the  cynical  Hamilton. 

Another  fable  that  has  been  circulated  con- 
cerning him  was  that  in  the  convention  of 
1787  he  advocated  a  monarchical  form  of  gov- 
ernment. The  brief  of  his  address  at  that 
convention  has  been  preserved, — it  was  the 
most  important  address  of  the  occasion, — and 
there  is  not  a  word  in  it  favorable  to  mon- 
archy, though  much  that  might  be  called  aristo- 
cratic. 

Those  who  speak  the  plain  truth  are  only 
too  likely  to  be  called  cynical.  Hamilton  was 
an  outspoken  man,  who  said  what  he  thought 
and  meant  what  he  said;  he  was  never  given 
to  those  honeyed  phrases  which  are  so  sweet 
in  the  mouth,  but  bitter  elsewhere.  His  frank- 
ness often  gave  offence,  but  it  made  his  mean- 
ing plain.  He  knew  human  nature  as  it  is, 
and  dealt  with  it  accordingly.  The  maxim 
that  we  ought  not  to  think  evil  of  others  is  not 
one  of  the  wisest,  because  tending  to  illusions 

112 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

and  self-deception, — a  maxim  coined  in  the  in- 
terest of  dissemblers  and  to  the  disadvantage 
of  clear-sighted  persons.  The  true  way  is  of 
course  not  to  blind  ourselves  to  the  faults  of 
others,  but  to  view  them  with  charity. 

The  best  and  only  necessary  testimony  to 
Hamilton's  character  is  Washington's  never 
failing  attachment  to  him.  Washington  knew 
men — as  ever  a  commander  in  an  army  must— 
and  his  own  moral  purity  has  not  been  over- 
estimated. The  recent  attempts  to  make  it 
appear  that  he  was  not  a  real  American,  but 
an  English  officer,  in  order  to  set  up  President 
Lincoln  on  a  pedestal  above  all  others,  is  no 
less  than  a  crime  against  patriotism.  Such  a 
public  character  as  Washington's  would  not 
have  been  possible  in  the  England  of  George 
III.*  He  was  the  finest  product  of  our  colo- 
nial civilization, — a  period  which  contained 
much  that  was  beautiful  and  heroic. 

Washington  had  no  sooner  seen  Hamilton 
than  he  recognized  his  value.  He  made  him 
his  aid,  and  used  him  for  the  most  difficult 
commissions  all  through  the  war,  finally  giving 
him  the  post  of  honor  in  the  attack  on  York- 
town.  When  he  became  President  he  ap- 

*  It  is  only  necessary  to  read  Thackeray's  "  Virginians"  to 
recognize  this. 

8  113 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

pointed  Hamilton  to  the  most  arduous  position 
in  his  Cabinet,  took  his  advice  on  the  most  im- 
portant matters,  and  manfully  supported  him 
against  powerful  enemies.  When  in  1798  war 
was  declared  against  France  and  President 
Adams  begged  Washington  to  take  command 
of  the  United  States  army,  he  agreed  to  do 
so  only  on  condition  that  Hamilton  should  be 
placed  second  to  himself,  and  he  insisted  on 
this  in  spite  of  Adams's  strong  disinclination 
to  make  the  appointment.  It  is  also  probable 
that  Washington's  farewell  address,  which 
has  been  so  greatly  admired,  was  written  by 
Hamilton.  It  is  certain  that  Hamilton  made 
the  draft  of  such  an  address,  and  that  Wash- 
ington highly  approved  it.* 

Hamilton  was  well  named  Alexander,  and 
this  may  have  had  some  influence  on  his  des- 
tiny, for  he  sprang  into  life  like  Athena  from 
the  head  of  Zeus  in  the  complete  panoply  of 
a  statesman.  He  was  one  of  those  prodigies 
intended  by  nature,  like  Mozart  and  Napo- 
leon, to  show  the  plenitude  of  her  powers. 
What  other  men  learn  by  slow  experience,  he 
seemed  to  know  by  intuition,  and  was  as  wise 
at  twenty-five  as  the  best  of  his  contemporaries 

*  The  writer  has  seen  Washington's  letter  to  Hamilton  thank- 
ing him  for  this  draft. 

114 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

were  at  forty.  In  this  respect  William  Pitt  is 
the  only  statesman  with  whom  we  can  com- 
pare him;  but  Pitt  was  only  an  able  party 
leader,  and  failed  where  Hamilton  succeeded. 
Pitt  has  been  called  the  evil  genius  of  his  time. 
He  was  easily  carried  off  his  feet  by  popular 
movements;  whereas  Hamilton  was  rooted 
like  an  oak  against  the  storms  of  time,  and  not 
only  proved  a  blessing  to  his  own  country,  but 
still  continues  to  be  a  blessing  wherever  wise 
men  consult  together  pro  bono  publico. 

He  resembled  Napoleon  not  only  in  his  pre- 
cocious intelligence,  but  also  in  his  short  stature, 
and  in  having  been  born  on  a  small  island. 
The  island  of  Nevis,  whence  Hamilton  came, 
was  almost  wholly  unknown  to  the  people  of 
the  thirteen  colonies,  so  that  it  seemed  to  good 
patriots  as  if  he  had  fallen  from  the  skies  for 
the  preservation  of  the  republic.  Yet  this  was 
not  wholly  an  advantage  to  him. 

Let  us  now  consider  briefly  what  Hamilton 
accomplished. 

The  condition  of  the  colonies  after  peace 
had  been  declared  was  so  deplorable  that  it 
seemed  to  justify  the  predictions  of  British 
journalists  that  their  separation  from  the 
mother  country  would  prove  a  curse  instead 
of  a  blessing.  Most  of  the  States  were  heavily 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

in  debt;  their  securities  selling  for  less  than 
half  the  nominal  value.  Their  commerce  had 
been  ruined  by  the  war,  and  British  merchants 
had  everywhere  the  upper  hand, — as  they  have 
at  present.  There  were  no  manufactures  in 
the  States  of  any  value  and  their  exports  were 
mainly  from  the  South.  The  central  govern- 
ment was  without  authority,  and  the  authority 
of  the  State  governments  was  openly  defied. 
Local  interests  and  sectional  prejudices  ruled 
everywhere.  The  natural  outcome  of  this  con- 
dition would  have  been  a  string  of  isolated  and 
petty  republics  like  those  on  the  western  coast 
of  South  America.  There  was  no  good  reason 
why  the  Spanish  colonies  should  not  have  been 
united  into  a  great  nation  at  the  time  they 
achieved  their  independence,  but  the  lack  of  a 
leader  of  sufficient  ability  and  foresight.  They 
had  a  Bolivar  and  other  patriotic  men,  but  no 
Hamilton. 

All  the  better  class  of  Americans  perceived 
the  danger  they  were  in,  but  they  knew  not 
how  to  avert  the  evil.  Hamilton  alone  thought 
out  a  scheme  of  government  which  he  called 
federalism,  by  which  a  strong  central  author- 
ity would  be  established  without  conflicting  in 
an  unfavorable  manner  with  the  subordinate 

local  governments. 

116 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

This  is  what  the  world  had  been  waiting  for 
for  more  than  two  thousand  years.  It  was 
from  the  lack  of  such  a  government  that  the 
Greeks  lost  their  independence,  first  to  the 
Macedonians  and  afterwards  to  the  Romans; 
and  it  was  for  the  same  lack  that  Rome  itself 
finally  became  a  military  despotism.  It  was 
what  Switzerland  needed  in  the  fourteenth 
and  England  in  the  seventeenth  century.  It 
is  the  only  way  that  true  .national  power 
can  be  made  to  harmonize  with  sectional 
interests. 

Hamilton  began  to  think  on  the  subject  be- 
fore he  left  the  army,  for  he  recognized  that 
the  greatest  difficulty  Washington  had  to  con- 
tend with  was  the  weakness  of  the  Continental 
Congress.  An  election  to  that  body  at  the 
close  of  the  war  did  not  improve  his  opinion 
of  it.  For  the  next  five  years  he  continued 
to  elaborate  his  plan  and  to  discuss  it  with  all 
the  important  men  who  came  across  his  path. 
There  were  many  who  considered  it  a  chimeri- 
cal scheme,  but  he  found  sympathetic  listeners 
in  Madison,  who  was  now  the  leading  poli- 
tician of  Virginia,  and  in  John  Jay,  who  was 
scarcely  less  important  in  New  York. 

The  commercial  convention  at  Annapolis  in 
1786  gave  him  an  opportunity  which  a  less 

117 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

disinterested  or  watchful  person  would  cer- 
tainly have  missed.  He  went  to  the  conven- 
tion and  succeeded  in  persuading  the  delegates 
that  uniform  trade  regulations  could  only  be 
obtained  through  a  strong  central  govern- 
ment.* The  convention  issued  an  address  to 
the  thirteen  States  in  accordance  with  Hamil- 
ton's ideas,  and  this  address  was  drafted  by 
him,  and  he  returned  to  his  own  State  deter- 
mined to  carry  the  measure  through. 

New  York  was  the  most  difficult  of  all  the 
States  to  deal  with,  owing  to  the  mixed  char- 
acter of  its  population  and  the  continued  influx 
of  foreign  immigrants.  The  governor  was  a 
narrow-minded,  obstinate  man,  strongly  op- 
posed to  the  new  scheme  of  government,  and 
was  supported  in  this  by  a  solid  majority; 
yet  Hamilton  outwitted  him  and  obtained  the 
appointment  of  delegates  to  the  constitutional 
convention  which  was  to  be  held  at  Philadel- 
phia. 

Democratic  historians  and  magazine  writers 
have  shamefully  belittled  Hamilton's  share  in 
the  proceedings  of  this  famous  assembly.  He 
was  the  originator  of  the  movement,  and,  like 
a  skilful  driver,  now  tightened,  now  slackened 

*  It  was  out  of  trade  regulations  that  Bismarck  also  made  a 
stepping-stone  to  German  national  unity. 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


the  reins  as  occasion  required.  He  made  the 
principal  speech  of  the  convention, — one  of 
the  longest  on  record, — in  which  he  reviewed 
all  the  important  governments  of  history,  ex- 
posing their  various  advantages  and  defects; 
and  it  is  more  than  likely  that  the  preamble 
to  the  Constitution  was  composed  by  him  as  it 
stands  to-day.  It  would  naturally  be  the  last 
portion  of  it  to  be  written,  and  its  widely  em- 
bracing sentences  immediately  suggest  the 
hand  of  Hamilton. 

The  next  important  step  was  to  obtain  the 
ratification  of  his  own  State,  and  public  senti- 
ment there  was  so  strongly  opposed  to  the  new 
government  that  the  cause  seemed  well-nigh 
hopeless.  New  York  was  then,  as  now,  the  piv- 
otal State,  but  for  a  very  different  reason.  It 
was  large  enough  to  maintain  its  own  inde- 
pendence, and,  if  it  did  this,  it  would  divide 
the  Union  in  two.  The  way  in  which  he  se- 
cured ratification,  not  only  by  the  Federalist 
letters,  but  by  speech-making,  canvassing,  and 
exerting  every  possible  pressure  on  public 
opinion,  has  always  been  the  admiration  of 
great  statesmen.  He  finally  carried  the  State 
by  a  narrow  majority;  but  Napoleon's  Italian 
campaign  was  not  a  more  glorious  success. 
The  man  who  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the 

119 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

future  United  States  of  America  had  also 
placed  the  capstone  on  this  noble  structure. 

There  is  nothing  like  the  Federalist  in 
any  other  language.  Works  on  politics  writ- 
ten by  philosophers  and  professors  have  their 
value,  but  in  the  Federalist  we  see  the  build- 
ing up  of  a  government  as  we  might  of  a 
house, — stone  upon  stone  and  beam  after 
beam.  It  is  a  government  that  has  lasted  now 
more  than  a  century  without  essential  change, 
while  most  other  governments  have  passed 
through  a  series  of  revolutions.  It  is  at  once 
liberal  and  conservative,  strong  without  being 
oppressive,  and  flexible  without  being  too 
changeable.  If  it  is  not  all  we  could  desire,  it 
may  be  safely  affirmed  that  improvement  lies 
in  the  direction  which  Hamilton  indicated. 

Madison  wrote  more  than  a  third  of  the 
articles  in  the  Federalist,  and  his  style  and 
form  of  reasoning  are  so  much  like  Hamil- 
ton's that  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  their  work 
apart.  Madison  was  a  practical  man  and  pos- 
sessed one  of  the  finest  intellects  of  his  time, 
but  he  had  not  the  energy  and  backbone  of 
Hamilton.  Fisher  Ames,  in  his  letters  from 
the  first  Congress,  has  given  us  a  portrait  of 
Madison  which  does  not  suggest  a  very  reso- 
lute man.  The  truth  is  that  Madison  always 

120 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


depended  on  some  other  person  for  his  guid- 
ance. At  this  time  it  was  Hamilton,  after- 
wards Jefferson,  and  finally  Henry  Clay.* 

Washington's  administration  still  remains 
the  ideal  of  a  republican  government.  As  al- 
ready remarked,  Washington  was  not  a  politi- 
cal leader,  and,  after  peace  had  been  declared, 
he  retired  to  Mount  Vernon  and  took  no  part 
in  public  affairs  until  he  was  called  to  support 
the  Constitutional  Convention  of  ,1787.  He 
was  first  a  civil  engineer  and  afterwards  a  sol- 
dier, and  knew  as  little  of  law  as  might  be 
expected  from  those  vocations.  No  one  be- 
lieved more  firmly  in  the  principle  of  every 
man  to  his  trade.  He  was,  however,  one  of  the 
ablest  of  administrators,  and  his  judgment  in 
practical  affairs  was  of  the  very  best.  There 
were  no  well-defined  political  parties  at  the 
time  Washington  was  chosen  President,  but 
they  sprang  up  soon  enough;  and  yet  Wash- 
ington maintained  to  the  end  a  position  of 
neutrality  and  non-partisanship  such  as  no 
President  since  has  succeeded  in  attaining. 
John  Quincy  Adams  and  Lincoln  have  per- 
haps approached  him  most  closely  in  this.  He 
gave  to  the  civil  service  the  stamp  of  his  own 

*  Bancroft  states  that  among  our  early  statesmen  Madison 
was  the  one  who  held  the  best  opinion  of  Clay. 

121 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

noble  purity,  and,  what  was  of  great  impor- 
tance in  the  commencement,  he  gave  style  and 
dignity  to  the  presidential  chair.  His  coach 
and  six  horses  may  have  been  slightly  ostenta- 
tious, but  they  were  according  to  the  fashion 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  no  doubt  had 
their  effect  like  the  high-flown  oratory  of 
Adams  and  Henry.  The  solecism  that  the 
President  is  the  servant  of  his  people  had  not 
yet  been  invented,  and  Washington  never 
questioned  his  own  right  to  oppose  the  will  of 
the  people  if  he  considered  it  to  the  interest  of 
the  republic  that  he  should  do  so.  The  two 
brilliant  successes  of  his  administration  were 
Hamilton's  daring  financial  policy,  and  the 
unwillingness  of  the  government  to  join  in 
the  popular  clamor  against  England  in  1793. 
He  gave  the  government  of  the  United  States 
such  a  fair  start  that  it  went  a  long  way  after 
his  time  without  much  help  from  any  one.  It 
seems  a  pity  that  he  could  not  have  been  Presi- 
dent four  years  longer. 

Washington's  single  mistake,  if  he  made 
one,  consisted  in  taking  Jefferson  into  his 
Cabinet.  Either  Madison  or  Pinckney  ought 
to  have  been  Secretary  of  State. 

It  is  now  difficult  to  comprehend  how  Jef- 
ferson possessed  such  influence  at  that  period 

122 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 


of  the  nation's  history.  He  was  not  a  man  of 
practical  ability;  though  an  excellent  writer, 
he  was  no  orator ;  and  now  to  be  a  good  writer 
without  also  being  a  good  speaker  is  of  small 
moment  in  politics.  Jefferson  was  either  too 
cold  or  too  timid  for  speech-making.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  the  most  skilful  manipulator 
of  his  time,  but  no  evidence  of  this  exists.  He 
had  the  art  of  pleasing  everybody,  especially 
inferiors,  and  would  leave  a  chance  acquaint- 
ance with  the  impression  that  they  were  the 
best  friends  in  the  world.  He  was  not  an  orig- 
inal thinker  like  Hamilton,  but  rather  an  im- 
porter of  foreign  ideas  like  John  Fiske.  He 
was  a  fine  French  scholar — rare  enough  in 
those  times — and  was  strongly  influenced  by 
Rousseau  and  the  French  philosophers.  This 
was  the  worst  of  it,  for  he  introduced  French 
political  ideas  into  America,  where  they  were 
not  at  all  required.  It  would  have  been  better 
to  have  imported  French  elegance  and  French 
courtesy  than  their  amateur  politics. 

Seward,  in  his  "  Life  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,"  says  in  a  sentence,  "  the  firmness  of 
Washington,  the  wisdom  of  Hamilton,  and 
the  humanity  of  Jefferson."  This  is  now  Jef- 
ferson's real  distinction.  He  was  one  of  the 

first  to  raise  his  voice  against  the  injustice  of 

123 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

African  slavery  in  a  most  eloquent  statement, 
of  which  the  abolitionists  afterwards  made 
good  use.  In  this,  however,  he  did  not  differ 
from  the  majority  of  his  countrymen.  Except 
in  certain  localities,  like  Georgia  and  the  fron- 
tiers, Americans  have  always  been  a  humane 
people,  less  brutal  than  the  English  and  less 
cruel  than  the  Spaniards.  In  some  notable 
instances  they  would  seem  to  have  been  even 
too  lenient.  A  Harvard  professor  has  lately 
called  the  United  States  a  barbarous,  semi- 
civilized  country,  but  he  must  have  forgotten 
this  most  important  element  of  civilization  as 
well  as  the  universal  respect  with  which  woman 
as  woman  is  treated  here.*  In  most  European 
cities  a  lady  cannot  go  out  alone  and  on  foot 
without  the  risk  of  being  insulted. 

What  strange  characters  came  to  the  sur- 
face as  leaders  in  the  French  Revolution  and 
afterwards  disappeared, — mostly  by  the  knife 
of  the  guillotine!  I  would  not  compare  Jef- 
ferson with  Danton  and  Robespierre,  and  yet 
he  belongs  in  a  far-off  way  to  the  same  class. 
During  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury there  was  everywhere  a  spirit  of  rebellion 
in  the  air,  not  alone  against  monarchical  gov- 


*  C.  E.  Norton  at  Radcliff  College  Commencement,  1901, 
124 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

eminent,  but  against  all  constituted  authority. 
Most  of  the  governments  of  Europe  had  be- 
come so  corrupt  and  even  licentious  that  it  was 
impossible  to  respect  them  any  longer.  Even 
the  mercantile  classes  began  to  look  upon  gov- 
ernment as  an  evil  in  itself,  to  be  escaped  from 
if  possible,  a  theory  which  has  resulted  in  the 
modern  doctrine  of  free  trade.  Jefferson, 
who  sympathized  with  every  popular  move- 
ment, good  or  bad,  of  his  time,  became  one 
of  the  exponents  of  this  fallacy;  and  the  pit- 
falls into  which  he  stumbled  during  his  admin- 
istration were  owing  to  the  fact  that  he  was 
a  President  who  did  not  believe  in  governing. 
Otherwise  he  was  like  a  boat  which  is  carried 
along  by  a  swift  current. 

The  conflict  between  Hamilton  and  Jeffer- 
son in  Washington's  Cabinet  resembled  a  war 
of  races.  Boswell  once  asked  Dr.  Johnson: 
"  whether  he  considered  Voltaire  or  Rousseau 
the  more  dangerous  writer,"  and  the  doctor  re- 
plied: "  Sir,  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  the 
amount  of  mischief  between  them."  Dr. 
Johnson  was  a  strong  believer,  but  if  he  had 
lived  in  Catholic  France  instead  of  constitu- 
tional England,  he  would  probably  have  recog- 
nized that  the  French  could  only  be  reformed 
through  a  process  of  disintegration,  and  that 

125 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

sceptics  like  Voltaire  and  the  encyclopaedists 
would  contribute  more  to  this  end  than  wiser 
men  could  do.  Tom  Paine  was  the  Voltaire 
of  America  and  Jefferson  its  Rousseau.  Both 
of  them  were  useful  in  their  way,  though 
they  also  did  much  harm ;  and  Hamilton  prob- 
ably regarded  them  as  Dr.  Johnson  did  their 
French  prototypes.  Shrewd  historical  judges 
have  calculated  that  if  Jefferson  had  not  been 
absent  at  the  French  court  in  1787  there  would 
never  have  been  a  United  States  of  America 
at  all. 

To  Jefferson's  mind,  Hamilton  appeared  as 
the  incarnation  of  all  that  is  politically  dan- 
gerous. His  very  abilities  made  him  appear 
so.  During  the  French  Revolution  every  man 
who  made  himself  conspicuous  enough  to 
exercise  authority  came  under  suspicion  of 
aspiring  to  the  sovereignty;  and  this  levelling 
spirit  of  democracy  was  not  only  shared  by 
Jefferson,  but  by  many  of  the  Federalists. 
Hamilton  had  no  intention  of  building  a  house 
upon  the  sand,  and  the  vigorous  measures 
which  he  undertook,  to  strengthen  the  govern- 
ment and  make  its  authority  respected,  were 
looked  upon  by  his  opponents  as  so  many  steps 
for  his  own  advancement.  There  was  no  more 
danger  of  a  coup  d'etat  in  those  days  than 

126 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

there  is  at  present,  but  it  served  as  a  fine  bug- 
bear to  a  large  class  of  Americans  at  that  time. 
When  Napoleon  abolished  the  feeble  French 
Directory,  these  Americans  were  perfectly 
satisfied  that  they  were  right,  and  that  Hamil- 
ton, who  so  much  resembled  Napoleon,  would 
have  done  something  similar  if  they  had  not 
prevented  it.  They  could  not  see  that  it  was 
by  giving  strength  and  solidity  to  the  govern- 
ment that  Hamilton  was  preventing  the  very 
catastrophe  which  they  presumed  he  was  in- 
triguing to  produce. 

Washington  always  supported  Hamilton. 
This  fact  has  not  been  sufficiently  considered. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  Hamilton  was  the  gov- 
ernment, for  Washington  was  far  too  strong 
a  character  to  permit  that;  but  with  two  or 
three  small  exceptions,  after  listening  to  dif- 
ferent opinions  from  his  Cabinet  officers,  he 
always  decided  in  Hamilton's  favor.  Not  only 
was  this  the  case  in  regard  to  Hamilton's 
financial  and  economical  measures,  which  were 
regularly  opposed  by  Jefferson,  but  also  in 
regard  to  matters  which  properly  belong  to 
the  State  department.  Hamilton  proposed 
and  carried  through  the  Jay  treaty  with  Eng- 
land by  sheer  force  of  will  and  argument ;  and 

when  the  northeastern  boundary  was  under 

127 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

discussion  he  wrote  an  extensive  argument  on 
that  subject,  considered  by  authorities  one  of 
the  finest  legal  documents  of  that  time. 

All  this  must  have  been  very  humiliating  to 
Jefferson,  and  how  he  endured  it  would  be 
a  mystery  if  it  were  not  for  a  peculiar  mental 
condition  of  the  age.  The  tendency  to  heredi- 
tary right  was  so  strong  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury that  the  American  people  took  it  as  a 
matter  of  course  that  the  Vice-President 
should  succeed  the  President,  and  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  the  Vice-President.  This  con- 
tinued with  some  intermissions  until  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  second  Adams.  The  most 
prominent  characteristic  in  Jefferson's  face  is 
tenacity  of  purpose, — indicated  by  the  fulness 
of  his  lower  jaw  and  the  double  lines  about 
the  corners  of  his  mouth.  He  knew  that  he 
was  in  the  direct  line  of  promotion,  and  that 
he  had  only  to  hold  on  in  order  finally  to  reach 
the  presidency,  from  which  Hamilton  was  de- 
barred by  his  foreign  birth. 

As  it  was,  Jefferson  twisted  and  fretted  and 
continually  threatened  to  resign.  No  doubt 
Washington  would  have  been  glad  to  have  him 
do  so,  but  did  not  like  to  force  his  resignation 
in  the  face  of  a  disapproving  Virginia.  The 

Southern  planters  were  the  real  aristocrats  of 

128 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

America.  They  lived  on  their  large  estates 
with  their  slaves,  hunting  and  duelling  much 
like  the  English  barons  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. They  did  not  look  with  favor  on  Jef- 
ferson's philanthropic  ideas,  but  they  quickly 
perceived  their  own  advantage  in  Jefferson's 
strong  opposition  to  Federalism,  for  the  last 
thing  they  wanted  was  a  vigorous  central  gov- 
ernment which  might  interfere  with  them 
some  day.  It  was  the  union  of  the  true  Demo- 
crats of  the  North  with  the  false  Democrats 
of  the  South  by  which  the  Federalists  were 
finally  outvoted. 

Men  who  have  not  the  courage  of  a  lion  are 
obliged  to  resort  to  the  cunning  of  the  fox. 
Jefferson's  Virginian  biographer  makes  no 
attempt  to  conceal  his  secret  machinations 
against  the  government  of  which  he  was  a 
member.  His  Virginia  and  Kentucky  reso- 
lutions, which  have  become  so  noted,  simply 
express  the  essential  spirit  of  rebellion;  but 
Senator  Lodge  credits  him  also  with  insti- 
gating the  Giles  resolution  for  investigating 
Hamilton's  treasury  accounts.  There  was  no 
more  excuse  for  such  an  investigation  then 
than  there  is  now  for  a  similar  investigation 
of  Secretary  Gage's  affairs,  and  Hamilton 
sailed  out  of  the  storm  with  flying  colors. 

9  129 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

After  this  failure,  Jefferson,  by  a  gift  of  a 
government  office,  subsidized  a  Frenchman 
named  Freneau  to  establish  a  journal  in  which 
he  attacked  Hamilton  in  the  most  violent  man- 
ner. This  was  more  than  flesh  and  blood  could 
stand,  and  Hamilton  proceeded  to  castigate 
his  adversaries,  big  and  little,  in  the  public 
prints  in  a  way  which  they  never  forgot.  He 
has  been  blamed  for  this  as  beneath  the  dig- 
nity of  his  position ;  but  a  good  thrashing  was 
exactly  what  they  needed,  and  it  probably  did 
them  a  great  deal  of  good.  Freneau,  if  not 
Jefferson,  was  the  first  to  introduce  the  cus- 
tom of  calumniating  political  opponents  in 
this  country, — a  practice  which  finally  resulted 
in  the  assassination  of  Garfield. 

The  most  cutting  commentary  on  Jeffer- 
son's opposition  to  Hamilton  is  that  after  he 
became  President  he  found  himself  obliged  to 
continue  Hamilton's  policy  both  in  finance  and 
foreign  affairs,  as  it  has  been  continued  ever 
since. 

European  statesmen  have  been  astonished, 
not  so  much  at  the  growth  of  our  republic  as 
at  its  solidity  and  internal  strength.  With  a 
most  heterogeneous  population  and  the  con- 
stant influx  of  ignorant  foreigners  the  United 
States  government  has  successfully  defied  in- 

130 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

ternal  rebellion  and  resisted  foreign  encroach- 
ment with  an  almost  magical  ease.  The  secret 
of  this  is  that  Hamilton  not  only  invented  the 
government  and  set  it  in  motion,  but  he  shaped 
the  policy  of  the  United  States,  foreign  and 
domestic,  so  wisely  that  subsequent  statesmen 
of  whatever  party  have  found  themselves 
obliged  to  follow  the  lines  that  he  indicated. 
Clay,  Webster,  Seward,  Sumner,  Lincoln, 
all  drew  largely  from  this  political  Castalian 
fount.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  for  the 
Union  it  was  said  that  our  cannon  were  loaded 
with  Webster's  reply  to  Colonel  Hayne.  That 
famous  oration  was  composed  in  a  single 
night,  and  it  was  Webster's  thorough  study 
of  Hamilton's  writings  which  enabled  him  to 
do  this. 

The  foundation  of  the  Academy  at  West 
Point  was  recommended  by  Hamilton.  He 
located  the  capital  of  the  United  States,  and 
so  favorably  that  during  the  Civil  War  it 
saved  two  States  to  the  Union.  He  was  the 
first  to  suggest  the  use  and  emancipation  of 
negroes  for  military  purposes.  The  system 
which  he  devised  for  the  collection  of  the  gov- 
ernment revenue  still  continues  mainly  as  it 
came  from  his  hand.  His  skill  as  a  financier 
has  certainly  never  been  surpassed,  if  indeed 

131 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

it  has  been  equalled.  His  assumption  of  the 
state  debts  by  the  Federal  government  aston- 
ished the  whole  country.  Yet  it  was  not  more 
politic  than  just,  for  the  obligations  of  the 
colonies  had  been  incurred  for  the  benefit  of 
the  nation  as  a  whole.  Hence  it  was  only  right 
that  the  whole  nation  should  become  responsi- 
ble for  them.  He  studied  political  economy 
to  get  the  juice  and  throw  away  the  rind.  He 
perceived  at  once  that  it  was  not  and  could 
not  be  one  of  the  exact  sciences;  that  men 
could  not  be  treated  like  pawns  upon  a  chess- 
board; and  that  the  investigations  of  retired 
scholars,  although  valuable,  were  not  always 
to  be  trusted  in  practical  affairs.  His  political 
economy  was  based  on  broad  moral  grounds. 
The  welfare  of  the  state  was  his  first  object, 
and  his  measures  were  suited  to  immediate  con- 
ditions. In  spite  of  Adam  Smith,  he  saw  it 
was  necessary  to  protect  home  industries  in 
order  to  obtain  immigration  and  develop  the 
vast  resources  of  the  country.  It  is  not  likely 
that  he  would  have  approved  of  the  Chinese 
wall  that  now  surrounds  it,  and  which  was  one 
of  the  evil  consequences  of  the  Southern  Re- 
bellion. 

After  six  years  of  tireless  activity,  Hamil- 
ton left  Washington's  Cabinet  for  the  prac- 

132 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

tice  of  his  profession  in  New  York,  where  he 
quickly  became  the  most  distinguished  lawyer 
of  his  time.  Erskine  alone  might  possibly  be 
compared  to  him.  He  had  no  love  for  public 
offices,  and  cared  still  less  for  celebrity.  He 
had  done  his  work  and  left  others  to  enjoy  the 
fruit  of  his  labors.  Perhaps  he  also  believed 
that  he  could  accomplish  more  for  the  ratifi- 
cation of  the  Jay  treaty  in  a  private  station. 
The  "  Camillus"  papers  which  he  wrote  for  this 
purpose  are  the  finest  of  Hamilton's  political 
writings  and  the  best  study  of  foreign  politics 
in  English  or  perhaps  in  any  language.  He 
signed  them  "  Camillus"  because  Camillus  was 
supposed  to  have  rescued  Rome  from  the 
Gauls,  and  in  like  manner  he  was  trying  to 
save  America  from  the  Gallomania  of  that 
time.  Jefferson  was  unable  to  persuade  Madi- 
son to  enter  the  lists  against  "  Camillus," — a 
threefold  compliment  to  Hamilton,  as  Von 
Hoist  calls  it ;  but  it  is  probable  that  Madison 
was  more  than  half  convinced  by  Hamilton's 
argument.  It  was  at  this  time  Aaron  Burr 
said:  "A  man  is  lost  who  puts  his  name  on 
paper  against  Hamilton." 

Only  those  who  love  the  truth  find  the  truth. 
Even  a  cursory  reading  of  the  "  Camillus"  pa- 
pers brings  before  us  the  portrait  of  a  man  as 

133 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

dispassionate,  single-minded,  and  patriotic  as 
President  Lincoln.  No  one  in  America  recog- 
nized the  terrible  condition  of  European  poli- 
tics in  1795  as  Hamilton  did;  and  while 
Jefferson,  in  his  blind  sympathy  for  the 
French  Revolution,  was  ready  to  imperil  the 
fortunes  of  the  nascent  republic  in  a  conflict 
with  giants,  Hamilton,  the  true  humanitarian, 
appears  like  the  captain  of  a  ship  who  is  will- 
ing to  sacrifice  a  portion  of  the  cargo  in  order 
to  ride  out  the  dangerous  storm.  He  expected 
that  war  would  finally  come,  and  predicted 
almost  the  exact  time  when  it  did  come,  but 
his  language  is  always  that  of  a  peace-maker. 
This  disposes  at  once  of  the  improbable  alle- 
gation that  Hamilton  was  so  ambitious  that 
he  never  would  be  satisfied  until  he  wore  a 
crown  on  his  head.  If  he  had  been  desirous 
of  usurping  the  sovereignty,  he  would  have 
followed  exactly  the  opposite  course  concern- 
ing the  Jay  treaty,  would  he  not?  He  would 
have  tried  to  aggravate  the  difficulty  with  the 
British  government,  and,  having  promoted 
war,  would  have  used  his  position  as  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army  to  turn  the  situ- 
ation to  his  own  advantage.  What  Washing- 
ton declined  to  accept  he  might  easily  have 
found  reasons  for  accepting.  Washington 

134 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

evidently  considered  him  a  military  genius, 
and  he  was  generally  so  considered.  He  gave 
no  support  to  the  popular  excitement  three 
years  later  (which  was  reasonable  enough), 
and  resulted  in  the  declaration  of  war  against 
France ;  but  when  the  campaign  against  Loui- 
siana had  been  decided  on  and  the  command 
intrusted  to  him,  he  exerted  himself  vigorously 
to  make  the  movement  a  success.  In  both 
these  international  difficulties  Washington  and 
Hamilton  stood  shoulder  to  shoulder  and  acted 
the  same  part. 

He  uses  plain  language  in  the  "  Camillus" 
papers  concerning  his  opponents;  but  in  ad- 
dressing a  wide  audience  it  is  only  plain  lan- 
guage that  is  effective.  His  sentences  resem- 
ble Napoleon's  in  their  force,  lucidity,  and 
completeness  of  detail ;  but  they  lack  the  calm 
repose  of  Napoleon.  His  style  is  swift,  ner- 
vous, and  in  places  almost  hurried,  as  if  his 
ideas  were  crowding  one  upon  another.  He 
says  on  the  first  page:  "It  is  natural  for  the 
bad  to  hate  the  virtuous ;"  a  statement  as  true 
now  as  when  the  Athenians  voted  to  banish 
Aristides  because  he  was  called  "  the  just." 

The  "  Camillus"  papers  effected  their  pur- 
pose. In  spite  of  the  Gallomania  the  Jay 
treaty  was  ratified,  and  war  with  England 

135 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

was  postponed  for  sixteen  years.  But  this  was 
the  last  of  Hamilton's  great  successes. 

John  Adams  was  to  Hamilton  very  much 
what  William  II.,  of  Germany,  proved  to  Bis- 
marck. It  may  be  said  of  Adams,  as  Tacitus 
says  of  Galba,  that  every  one  would  have  sup- 
posed him  the  fittest  person  for  President  if 
he  had  never  held  the  office.  Hamilton's  keen 
penetration  perceived  this  in  advance,  and  he 
made  an  effort  to  obtain  the  nomination  of  a 
Southern  Federalist,  and  in  this  way  he  would 
also  have  taken  the  wind  out  of  Jefferson's 
sails;  but  the  only  result  of  this  intrigue  was 
to  embitter  Adams  against  himself.  Adams 
was  upright,  patriotic,  but  not  magnanimous. 
If  he  had  made  Hamilton  Secretary  of  State 
he  would  have  given  lustre  to  his  administra- 
tions, won  a  strong  friend,  and  probably  se- 
cured his  own  re-election.  Instead  of  this,  by 
depreciating  Hamilton  he  belittled  himself, 
and  is  generally  credited  with  having  ruined 
the  Federalist  party. 

After  the  election  of  1800,  Hamilton  had 
an  opportunity  to  show  the  stuff  of  which  he 
was  made.  He  had  labored  zealously  for  the 
re-election  of  Adams,  and  now  he  found  him- 
self obliged  to  make  even  a  greater  self-denial. 
The  disappointed  Federalists  intrigued  with 

136 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

the  Burr  Democrats  for  the  election  of  Burr 
instead  of  Jefferson.  Between  Aaron  Burr 
and  Jefferson  there  was  for  Hamilton  not  a 
moment's  choice:  the  former  was  a  visionary 
but  the  latter  of  a  thoroughly  corrupt  nature; 
and  he  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  personal 
influence  in  favor  of  Jefferson.  A  letter  has 
lately  come  to  light  written  by  Hamilton  to  one 
of  the  Federalist  electors  *  in  1801,  urging  him 
to  vote  for  Jefferson  so  as  to  prevent  the  elec- 
tion of  Burr.  Jefferson  owed  his  advancement 
to  the  man  he  had  persecuted,  and  this  act  of 
magnanimity  cost  Hamilton  his  life. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  duel  between  Ham- 
ilton and  Burr  did  not  differ  essentially  from 
other  duels;  but  as  for  that  it  may  be  safely 
affirmed  that  no  two  duels  have  ever  been  ex- 
actly alike.  For  General  Jackson  to  kill  the 
reprobate  who  insisted  on  fighting  him  may 
have  been  a  public  benefaction;  but  when  a 
man  who  knows  his  own  skill  takes  advantage 
of  the  code  of  honor  to  force  a  peaceable  citi- 
zen into  a  duel  he  differs  little  from  an  assas- 
sin. The  wonder  is  that  Hamilton  should  have 
accepted  Burr's  challenge.  He  would  have 
lost  small  credit  by  refusing  it,  and  at  the  pres- 

*  Bayard,  of  Delaware. 
137 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

ent  time  a  politician  who  would  challenge  his 
opponent  to  a  mortal  encounter  would  meet 
with  public  ridicule.  It  would  seem  as  if 
Hamilton  might  have  made  Burr  appear  ridic- 
ulous; but  in  the  greatest  men  there  is  always 
an  enigmatic  quality  which  defies  analysis. 
The  death  of  a  hero  always  bears  good  fruit, 
and  the  shot  that  killed  Hamilton  put  an  end 
to  duelling  in  the  better  portion  of  America. 
Neither  the  death  of  Washington  nor  Lincoln 
called  forth  more  eloquent  tributes  of  national 
grief. 

It  is  a  pity  that  a  biography  of  Aaron  Burr 
should  have  been  introduced  in  the  series  of 
American  statesmen.  He  was  in  no  sense  a 
statesman,  but  a  reckless  political  gambler,— 
a  parasite  on  society.  After  this  time  it  would 
seem  as  if  he  were  pursued  by  avenging  furies. 
His  daughter,  the  only  person  who  cared  for 
him,  was  captured  by  pirates  and  came  to  an 
unknown  end.  After  the  failure  of  his  West- 
ern secession  schemes  he  wandered  from  one 
country  to  another,  bankrupt  in  pocket  and 
reputation.  Finally,  one  winter  night  in  Bos- 
ton a  near  relative  of  President  Adams  was 
informed  that  a  stranger  wished  to  speak  to 
him  at  the  door.  He  went  and  found  Aaron 
Burr,  who  begged  the  loan  of  ten  dollars  with 

138 


ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 

which  to  reach  New  York  City.  He  died  alone 
in  a  garret  in  New  York,  and  when  found  his 
body  had  been  partly  eaten  by  rats.* 

Hamilton's  interest  in  Miranda,  a  South 
American  revolutionist,  has  been  greatly  ex- 
aggerated. People  forget  that  Hamilton 
came  from  that  part  of  the  world,  and  that  he 
naturally  wished  to  learn  what  was  going  on 
there.  For  him  to  be  seen  in  company  with 
Miranda  was  sufficient  to  excite  suspicions  of 
foreign  conquests. 

His  advice  to  Governor  Jay  to  disregard  the 
Constitution  in  respect  to  the  election  of  1800 
is  a  more  serious  matter.  It  was  revolutionary, 
and  would  have  tended  to  bring  the  Constitu- 
tion into  contempt,  but  it  might  have  resulted 
in  a  salutary  change  in  the  method  of  electing 
Presidents.  To  choose  a  President  by  Con- 
gressional districts  would  be  much  fairer  than 
the  present  system. 

Hamilton's  character  was  not  as  perfect  as 
Washington's  or  that  of  Ferdinand  of  Bruns- 
wick; but  there  is  little  which  can  be  said 
against  it.  His  enemies  asserted  that  he  was 
haughty,  which  in  partisan  language  merely 
means  that,  like  Washington  and  Sumner,  he 

*The  first   Josiah   Quincy   was   authority    for   these    facts. 
Johnson's  Cyclopaedia  says  he  died  on  Staten  Island. 

139 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

maintained  a  fine  reserve.  Men  of  popular 
manners,  especially  those  who  seem  to  be  every- 
body's friend,  rarely  have  good  judgment  in 
great  affairs,  for  they  live  too  much  on  the 
surface  of  things.  Elbridge  Gerry,  writing  to 
a  friend  from  the  first  Congress,  said:  "  To- 
day I  called  on  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, the  celebrated  Alexander  Hamilton,  and 
found  him  a  plain,  kind  man."  How  pleas- 
antly those  words  sound  to  the  ear, — a  plain, 
kind  man.  How  else  can  we  think  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  except  as  a  plain,  kind  man? 
Senator  Lodge,  however,  pays  Hamilton  a 
higher  compliment  when  he  says,  in  reference 
to  Jefferson's  assertion  that  he  had  been  duped 
by  Hamilton  in  the  bargain  for  fixing  the 
national  capital:  "  It  is  very  doubtful  if  Ham- 
ilton could  succeed  in  duping  anybody."  His 
large,  open,  magnanimous  nature  scorned  the 
arts  of  dissimulation  by  which  meaner  men  rise 
to  influence.  He  made  his  way  by  clear  force 
of  intellect  and  character,  and  had  no  need  of 
stratagems  and  wiles.  That  North  America 
is  not  like  South  America,  and  that  the  United 
States  now  exists  instead  of  a  group  of  petty 
republics,  is  chiefly  owing  to  the  genius  and 
foresight  and  heroic  devotion  of  Alexander 

Hamilton. 

140 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

PROFESSOR  SEEL  YE,  in  his  small,  disparaging 
biography  of  Napoleon,  speaks  of  the  Ameri- 
can Presidents  as  a  "  set  of  adventurers."  If 
he  means  by  this  the  Presidents  of  the  United 
States,  he  is  greatly  in  error.  There  have  been 
good  Presidents  and  weak  ones,  capable  Presi- 
dents and  inefficient  ones,  but  not  one  of  those 
who  has  been  regularly  elected  to  the  office  can 
be  properly  styled  an  adventurer.  Arthur  and 
Johnson  might  be  called  adventurers,  but  it 
was  not  intended  nor  expected  that  they  should 
become  Presidents.  It  was  because  Aaron 
Burr,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and  James  G. 
Blaine  were  adventurers,  that,  with  all  their 
popularity  and  diplomatic  skill,  they  never 
could  obtain  the  position.  The  people  of  the 
United  States  always  reserve  to  themselves  the 
right  of  defeating  a  candidate  who  suffers 
from  what  is  called  "  Presidential  fever." 

The  tendency  to  hereditary  succession  was 
so  strong  in  the  men  of  the  eighteenth  century 
that  the  first  five  Presidents  after  Washington 
were  all  promoted  either  from  the  Vice-Presi- 
dency or  from  the  position  of  Secretary  of 

141 


or  THE  \ 

v    UNIVERSITY   1 

OF  / 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

State.  With  General  Jackson,  however,  a 
series  of  popular  heroes  came  on  to  the  stage, 
most  of  them  good  men  in  their  way,  but  not 
well  fitted  either  by  temperament  or  experi- 
ence for  the  position.  De  Tocqueville  and 
other  foreigners  have  noticed  that  no  people 
are  so  easily  captivated  by  military  glory  as 
the  Americans,  and  Presidents  Jackson,  Har- 
rison, and  Taylor  were  the  victors  of  a  single 
battle.  Grant  had  a  long  and  honorable  mili- 
tary career,  though  perhaps  not  the  most  bril- 
liant; while  Scott,  the  conqueror  of  Mexico, 
proved  an  unsuccessful  candidate  apparently 
because  he  was  a  man  of  aristocratic  manners. 
Among  all  these  Presidents,  from  Jackson  to 
Hayes,  there  was  only  one  who  gave  distinc- 
tion to  the  position,  and  that  one  was  Abraham 
Lincoln.  The  others,  however,  were  not  ad- 
venturers, but  men  of  good  reputation  and 
respected  in  their  professions.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  a  large  majority  of  the  eminent 
men  and  distinguished  intellects  of  America 
have  originated  in  Virginia  and  New  Eng- 
land, and  next  to  these  localities  in  Kentucky 
and  Ohio.  The  direct  descent  of  President 
Lincoln  from  the  Lincoln  family,  which  set- 
tled at  Hingham  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
has  been  satisfactorily  made  out  by  Samuel 

142 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

Shack  ford,  in  spite  of  the  denials  of  Abraham 
Lincoln's  Illinois  biographers.  The  name  is 
common  in  New  England,  and  in  or  about 
1870  there  was  a  captain  of  a  steamboat  on  the 
coast  of  Maine  whose  name  was  Lincoln  and 
whose  face  resembled  that  of  the  martyred 
President.  It  is  a  not  uncommon  type  of  a 
New  England  face. 

Lincoln's  grandmother  was  a  Virginian,  and 
he  was  born  in  Kentucky;  but  he  was  not  at 
all  of  a  Kentuckian  in  character.  The  com- 
mon type  of  Kentuckian  is  proud,  belligerent, 
fond  of  external  decoration,  even  to  pinchbeck 
jewelry,  and  averse  to  physical  labor.  There 
was  nothing  at  all  of  this  in  Lincoln.  Even 
after  he  became  President  he  was  the  most 
modest,  unpretending  man  in  Washington. 
Although  fond  of  discussion  and  a  tireless  de- 
bater, he  hated  anything  like  a  personal  con- 
troversy. He  cared  little  for  external  appear- 
ances, and  was  a  tremendous  worker  with  his 
hands.  He  was  equally  strong  in  mind  and 
body,  and  the  stories  of  his  rail-splitting  are  no 
fabrication.  His  virtues  were  those  of  the  old- 
fashioned  New  England  farmers.  He  was 
cool-headed,  nonchalant,  frugal,  industrious, 
and  economical.  His  wit  was  genuine  Yankee 
wit,  and  it  was  the  more  conspicuous  in  Spring- 

143 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

field,  Illinois,  because  his  associates  would  seem 
to  have  been  gifted  with  little  of  it.  The  same 
kind  of  wit  can  still  be  heard  among  accidental 
congregations  of  men  in  New  England  coun- 
try towns. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  rise  in  life  from  the  log- 
cabin  to  the  White  House  would  seem  more 
remarkable  if  the  same  thing  had  not  hap- 
pened to  General  Harrison  twenty  years  ear- 
lier. Henry  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,  is  said 
to  have  been  born  under  a  barberry-bush  by 
the  wayside;  began  life  as  a  shoemaker,  read 
a  few  law-books,  obtained  an  election  to  the 
Legislature,  and  after  a  brilliant  career  in  the 
United  States  Senate  ended  his  life  as  Vice- 
President,  and  if  he  had  lived  longer  might 
have  been  President  also.  Nor  did  this  happen 
on  the  outskirts  of  civilization,  where  the  con- 
tinual influx  of  immigrants  lifts  a  man  who 
has  once  been  established,  like  the  incoming 
tide  that  floats  a  ship  in  her  dock;  but  in  the 
oldest,  most  conservative,  and  well-settled  por- 
tion of  the  country.  The  truth  would  seem  to 
be  that  in  a  democratic  republic  it  is  easier  for 
a  man  who  starts  from  the  lowest  round  of  the 
ladder  to  rise  in  political  life  than  for  one  who 
is  well  educated  and  otherwise  favorably  situ- 
ated; provided  only  that  he  possesses  real  abil- 

144 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ity  and  a  well-balanced  character.  Classes 
exist,  whether  we  recognize  them  or  not,  and 
men  will  always  vote  for  a  candidate  of  their 
own  class,  if  they  can  find  one  available,  in 
preference  to  those  of  other  classes.  The 
fence-rail  that  was  carried  into  the  Chicago 
Convention  in  1860  may  not  have  been  with- 
out its  influence  on  the  result;  and  yet  the 
members  of  that  convention  were  much  above 
the  average  in  character  and  intelligence.  Ro- 
mantic rises  in  life  are  like  great  prizes  in  a 
lottery,  and  have  a  highly  stimulating  effect 
on  the  imaginations  of  those  who  work  for 
small  wages. 

Lincoln  was  no  adventurer,  but  improved 
his  condition  in  life  in  an  honorable  and  con- 
servative manner  by  a  steady  intellectual  ef- 
fort. There  are  no  dark  spots  in  his  record, 
no  political  intrigues,  no  Mulligan  letters,  nor 
even  the  shadow  of  a  domestic  scandal.  He 
led  an  upright  life.  His  great  stature  and  the 
strength  he  had  gained  by  swinging  the  axe 
made  him  feared  in  a  community  where  the 
roughest  kind  of  self-help  was  the  order  of 
the  day.  His  honesty  caused  him  to  be  trusted, 
and  it  was  found  as  he  grew  older  that  he  was 
a  person  of  excellent  judgment.  With  such 
conditions  one  can  succeed  more  readily  in  the 

10  145 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

West  than  in  the  East;  and  it  is  doubtful  if 
Lincoln's  struggle  in  life  was  really  so  severe 
as  Emerson's  or  many  others,  of  whom  we  have 
never  heard. 

No  historical  character,  except  Napoleon, 
has  had  so  many  false  lights  cast  upon  him  as 
President  Lincoln's,  but  with  this  difference, 
that  the  character  of  Napoleon  has  been  dis- 
torted by  his  enemies  and  that  of  Lincoln  by 
his  would-be  friends.  His  tragical  fate  was 
largely  the  cause  of  this  in  Lincoln's  case,  but 
it  has  also  been  done  for  political  purposes ;  so 
that  after  forty  years  the  real  personality  of 
the  man  is  only  beginning  to  emerge  from  the 
mythological  material  under  which  it  has  been 
concealed. 

James  Russell  Lowell  was  the  first  to  at- 
tempt an  estimate  of  Lincoln  in  an  essay  in 
the  North  American  Review;  but  Lowell  did 
not  know  Lincoln,  and  was  never  acquainted 
with  prominent  public  men  who  might  have 
informed  him  about  Lincoln.  Consequently 
his  essay  was  mostly  a  piece  of  guess-work, 
and  on  account  of  the  celebrity  of  the  writer 
it  has  attracted  much  more  attention  than  it 
deserves. 

Something  better  was  to  be  expected  of 

William  H.  Herndon,  who  was  President  Lin- 

146 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

coin's  law  partner  at  Springfield;  and  in 
Herndon's  biography  we  actually  come  nearer 
to  the  man  than  in  any  other  life  of  him.  The 
book,  however,  is  not  free  from  persiflage,  and 
the  writer  quotes  too  many  remarkable  predic- 
tions by  Lincoln  to  be  altogether  trustworthy. 
Herndon  did  not  see  much  of  Lincoln  during 
his  presidency,  and  accordingly  has  little  to 
say  concerning  that  most  important  epoch  of 
his  life. 

Lamon's  biography  is  very  similar  to  Hern- 
don's, but  he  does  not  appear  to  have  known 
Lincoln  so  well,  and  he  does  not  paint  so  life- 
like a  portrait. 

Congressman  Arnold,  of  Illinois,  was  a  su- 
perior kind  of  man ;  but  his  life  of  Lincoln  was 
written  too  much  under  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion  and  too  close  to  the  events  which  he 
describes.  The  book  suffers  from  a  lack  of 
frankness. 

Nicolay  and  Hay's  biography  resembles 
Carlyle's  "  Life  of  Frederick  the  Great."  It 
is  history  written  for  the  benefit  of  an  indi- 
vidual. It  contains  some  valuable  information 
from  the  archives  at  Washington,  but  it  is 
otherwise  chiefly  remarkable  for  its  cynical  dis- 
paragement of  old  John  Brown, — what  Lin- 
coln himself  would  have  called  pulling  down 

147 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

one  man  in  order  to  elevate  another.  Their 
book  represents  the  most  aggressive  type  of 
Westernism. 

With  these  materials  before  him,  John  T. 
Morse  has  at  length  given  the  world  a  sub- 
stantially faithful  and  impartial  account  of 
President  Lincoln.  It  is  a  pity  that  he  does 
not  better  appreciate  the  position  of  the  old 
Abolitionists  and  Freesoilers,  who  created  the 
movement  which  carried  Lincoln  into  the 
White  House  and  whom  Mr.  Morse  always 
refers  to  as  "  extremists;"  but  so  far  as  Lin- 
coln himself  is  concerned,  he  appears  like  a 
fair-minded  and  impartial  critic. 

Abraham  Lincoln  has  to  be  considered  as  a 
lawyer,  a  politician,  an  administrator,  a  states- 
man, an  orator,  and  a  character. 

His  course  as  a  lawyer  was  not  over  any 
smooth  highway  of  learning  and  the  practice 
of  elegant  oratory,  but  like  the  roughest 
mountain  climbing  in  which  he  availed  him- 
self of  every  expedient  that  would  give  him 
practical  support.  Yet  he  was  noted  from 
the  first  as  an  honest  lawyer,  who  could  give 
vent  to  much  crude  eloquence  in  a  just  cause, 
but  always  seemed  to  be  hampered  by  a  dubi- 
ous case.  In  instances  of  the  latter  sort  he 
would  attempt  to  obtain  what  he  could  for  his 

148 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

client  by  means  of  a  compromise,  and  failing 
this  he  adopted  a  purely  defensive  position. 
All  accounts  agree  to  his  honesty,  his  kindli- 
ness to  widows,  and  other  disinterested  work; 
but  also  that  he  was  not  a  well-read  lawyer  or 
even  versed  in  the  technicalities.*  He  made 
every  case  a  study  by  itself  and  attacked  the 
problem  in  whatever  way  he  would  be  most 
likely  to  solve  it.  Some  of  his  arguments  were 
naively  ingenious ;  especially  in  the  case  of  cer- 
tain women  of  a  neighboring  town  who  had 
destroyed  a  liquor  saloon  and  were  sued  for 
damages.  Lincoln  defended  them  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  an  act  of  self-preservation, 
and  gained  his  case.  He  convinced  the  judges 
with  good  logic  and  entertained  the  jury  with 
anecdotes  illustrating  the  subject  in  hand  like 
a  modern  ^Bsop.  His  store  of  fables  was 
unlimited,  and  in  this  respect  there  was  not 
another  like  him  in  the  country. 

At  the  age  of  forty  he  came  to  be  consid- 
ered one  of  the  three  or  four  ablest  lawyers 
in  his  State.  He  was  in  Illinois  what  Webster 
had  been  in  New  England,  though  in  a  less 
degree.  Like  Demosthenes,  he  had  no  natural 
aptitude  for  oratory,  and,  unlike  Demosthenes, 

*  See  Herndon,  II.,  5. 
149 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

he  found  little  opportunity  to  cultivate  it. 
His  voice  was  far  from  melodious  and  his  tall, 
lank  figure  was  not  well  suited  to  the  plat- 
form. His  features  were  bony  and  inexpress- 
ive, but  the  material  of  which  his  speeches  were 
composed  was  often  very  remarkable,  and  this 
leads  us  directly  to  the  mainspring  of  his  na- 
ture. Lincoln  was  a  born  artist, — a  rosebush 
growing  in  a  barnyard. 

There  is  something  very  pathetic  in  this, 
when  we  consider  what  his  early  surround- 
ings were  and  what  they  ought  to  have  been. 
The  coarse  wit,  that  has  been  justly  enough 
ascribed  to  him,  was  adventitious.  It  belonged 
to  the  Western  politician  and  the  circuit  law- 
yer. Lincoln's  true  nature  was  refined  and 
elevated.  Like  John  Brown,  he  developed  an 
internal  life  parallel  with  his  external,  as 
poetic  and  beautiful  as  the  other  was  hard  and 
rugged;  and  it  may  have  been  this  contrast 
between  his  external  life  and  the  ideal  within 
him  which  caused  those  periods  of  sadness 
which  expressed  themselves  in  his  face,  but 
which  he  never  explained.  Professor  Hedge, 
of  Harvard,  one  of  the  first  critics  of  his 
time,  once  remarked  that  if  Lincoln  had  hap- 
pened to  turn  his  attention  to  literature 
instead  of  politics,  he  would  have  surpassed  all 

150 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

American    writers,    except    Hawthorne    and 
Emerson. 

The  plain-speaking  Herndon  informs  us 
that  Lincoln  did  not  read  books  thoroughly. 
He  looked  into  them  for  special  purposes,  and, 
having  found  what  he  wanted,  threw  them 
aside.  Milton,  however,  was  an  exception. 
He  read  Milton  more  than  Shakespeare,  and 
this  accounts  for  the  plain,  classic  elegance  of 
his  style  as  a  writer.  There  are  admirable  pas- 
sages of  Miltonic  English  in  his  speeches  and 
public  documents, — thought  as  clear  as  crystal ; 
but  none  of  his  addresses  have  a  sufficiently 
constructive  form  to  be  placed  beside  those 
of  Webster  and  Sumner.  The  statements  of 
real  value  in  them  are  like  green  islands  in  the 
midst  of  a  turbid  river.  Lincoln's  oratory  was 
serious,  persuasive,  and  vitalizing,  but  it  was 
much  like  the  prairies  on  which  he  lived;  he 
never  became  impassioned,  and  one  can  read 
a  long  way  in  his  speeches  before  coming  to 
anything  that  deeply  moves  the  human  heart. 
It  was  Wendell  Phillips  who  said  of  Love  joy, 
the  first  anti-slavery  martyr  in  Illinois: 

"  How  cautiously  most  men  slip  into  nameless 
graves,  while  now  and  then  one  forgets  himself  into 
immortality !" 

151 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

Lincoln's  politics  were  like  his  law  practice, 
— eminently  practical  and  suited  to  Illinois 
life.  If  he  had  lived  in  Ohio  he  would  have 
been  as  progressive  as  Chase,  and  in  Massa- 
chusetts as  revolutionary  as  Sumner  and  An- 
drew. We  may  trust  that  wherever  he  was, 
he  represented  the  best  elements  about  him. 
He  was  ready  to  make  bargains  provided  they 
were  innocent,  and  to  subscribe  to  compro- 
mises if  they  were  just.  He  never  troubled 
himself  about  political  science  or  European 
affairs,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  he  even  read  the 
Federalist,  which  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
United  States  government.  It  is  much  to  his 
credit  that,  having  been  lowly  born,  he  should 
have  joined  the  Whig  party  rather  than  the 
Democrats,  for  the  Democratic  party  at  that 
period  represented  the  dregs  of  American  pol- 
itics,— the  spoils'  system  and  the  superiority  of 
ignorance.  Moreover,  the  Whig  party  was  in 
a  minority  in  Lincoln's  own  district,  so  that 
this  choice  could  not  have  been  made  from 
interested  motives. 

Lincoln's  admiration  for  Henry  Clay's  ora- 
tory may  have  been  one  cause  for  this.  Clay's 
speeches  do  not  read  like  Webster's,  but  his 
delivery  was  perfection,  and  he  was  otherwise 
one  of  the  finest  types  of  an  American  states- 

152 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

man.  From  the  lecture  he  delivered  on  Henry 
Clay,  it  seems  probable  that  Lincoln  took  Clay 
as  a  model  for  his  own  course  in  political  life. 

He  did  not  succeed  readily,  but  only  after 
many  trials  and  discouraging  reverses.  He 
was  neither  a  Charles  James  Fox  nor  an  Alex- 
ander Hamilton.  In  all  his  proceedings  he  was 
slow  and  deliberate,  though  quick  enough  at 
repartee,  and  woe  to  the  political  opponent  who 
attempted  to  make  fun  of  him.  In  his  fortieth 
year  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  where  he  hon- 
ored himself  by  voting  forty-two  times  for  the 
Wilmot  Proviso,  which  was  designed  to  ex- 
clude slavery  from  the  territories  recently 
acquired  by  the  iniquitous  invasion  of  Mexico. 

In  connection  with  this  subject,  Lincoln  said, 
however,  of  the  revolution  in  Texas  which  pre- 
ceded it : 

"  Any  people  anywhere,  being  inclined  and  having 
the  power,  have  the  right  to  rise  up  and  shake  off  the 
existing  government,  and  form  a  new  one  that  suits 
them  better.  This  is  a  most  valuable,  a  most  sacred 
right, — a  right  which,  we  hope  and  we  believe,  is  to 
liberate  the  world.  Nor  is  this  right  confined  to  cases 
in  which  the  whole  people  of  an  existing  government 
may  choose  to  exercise  it."  * 

*  Morse,  I.,  76. 
153 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

In  this  statement  Lincoln  recognizes  the 
right  of  revolution,  but  fails  to  define  it  clearly. 
On  such  doctrine  not  only  would  the  secession 
of  the  slave-holders  have  been  justified,  but 
that  of  any  disaffected  community  which 
chooses  to  set  up  its  will  against  the  central 
authority.  I  do  not  feel  sure  that  the  people 
of  the  United  States  are  the  only  ones  who 
consider  their  government  to  be  founded  in 
right  and  equity,  and  that  all  others  are  radi- 
cally vicious  and  unjust.  The  plain  fact  was 
that  Texas  was  filched  from  the  Republic  of 
Mexico  by  a  lot  of  Southern  adventurers,  who 
were  supported  in  this  by  the  national  adminis- 
tration. Mr.  Morse  says  that  at  this  time  Lin- 
coln was  wildly  anti-slavery.  Exactly  what 
he  thought  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  remains 
uncertain,  for  his  utterances  on  the  subject 
were  doubtless  diplomatic.  However,  he  al- 
ways supported  the  enforcement  of  the  law, 
even  after  he  issued  the  Emancipation  Procla- 
mation. This  was  the  serious  mistake  of 
his  life,  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  by  sus- 
pending the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  enacted  a 
small  revolution  wherever  it  was  enforced. 
The  law  itself  was  revolutionary,  and  if 
slavery  could  only  be  supported  by  such  meas- 
ures, the  republic  was  doomed,  and  democracy 

154 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

would  have  to  give  way  to  an  oligarchical 
despotism. 

Sumner  perceived  this  and  proclaimed  it 
boldly;  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  Lincoln 
ever  perceived  it,  and  he  continued  to  treat  the 
slavery  question  on  a  legal  and  economic  basis, 
while  the  country  was  smoking  with  the  subter- 
ranean fires  of  a  great  social  convulsion.  This 
view  of  the  subject  greatly  assisted  his  nomi- 
nation at  Chicago  in  1860,  but  it  proved  an  im- 
pediment during  his  administration.  If  he  felt 
sympathy  for  the  unfortunate  condition  of  the 
African,  he  never  expressed  it. 

Lincoln's  reputation  with  the  people  of  Illi- 
nois improved  continually,  so  that  in  1854  he 
became  a  candidate  for  the  Senatorship, — a 
more  important  position  than  the  governorship. 
Lyman  Trumbull,  however,  carried  off  the 
prize,  of  whom  Horace  White  said  that  as  a 
political  debater  he  was  scarcely,  if  at  all,  in- 
ferior to  either  Lincoln  or  Douglas.  He  was, 
besides,  a  man  of  stainless  reputation.*  Illi- 
nois was  fortunate  to  possess  two  such  states- 
men at  this  time. 


*  The  writer  heard  Trumbull  deliver  a  speech  on  a  veto  by 
President  Johnson  in  February,  1866.  His  voice  sounded  in 
the  lobbies  like  the  roaring  of  a  lion,  and  he  continued  this  for 
full  two  hours. 

155 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

Lincoln  would  seem  to  have  taken  little 
interest  in  the  Kansas  troubles,  which  proved 
the  first  battle-ground  for  honest  labor  in  the 
United  States.  After  Lawrence  had  been 
burned  by  the  Missourians,  Kansas  Aid  Com- 
mittees were  organized  all  through  the  North- 
ern States,  and  Lincoln  was  appointed  on  one 
of  them,  but  he  shortly  afterwards  resigned 
without  doing  much  for  the  cause. 

The  joint  debates  between  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  in  1858  are  deservedly  celebrated,  for 
never  was  there  a  more  brilliant  fence  of  argu- 
ment in  America,  or  perhaps  anywhere  else. 
This  became  the  more  so  since  the  political 
platforms  they  stood  upon  were  so  narrow  that 
both  parties  were  continually  in  danger  of  fall- 
ing to  the  ground  from  the  insecurity  of  their 
footing.  It  resembled  a  boxing-match  con- 
ducted on  a  tight-rope.  They  were  obliged  to 
be  debaters  and  acrobats  at  the  same  time.  The 
slavery  question  in  Illinois  was  narrowed  down 
to  its  possible  extension  in  the  territories. 
Lincoln  was  opposed  to  this,  and  Douglas  only 
admitted  it  on  such  hypothetical  conditions  as 
almost  to  nullify  its  possibility. 

What  a  contrast  they  presented  on  the  stage : 
Lincoln,  six  feet  four  inches  in  height,  lean  and 
angular,  but  always  dignified  and  imperturba- 

156 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ble;  Douglas,  square  and  thick-set,  with  short 
legs,  a  coarse  bull-dog  face,  and  full  of  force 
as  a  steam-engine.  A  casual  spectator  might 
have  felt  inclined  to  laugh,  but  he  would  not 
have  laughed  long.  These  debates  were  argued 
with  such  skill  on  both  sides  that  they  are  still 
excellent  reading,  not  as  a  discussion  of  the 
subject,  but  for  the  ingenious  subterfuges  of 
Douglas  and  the  apt  replies  and  pithy  state- 
ments of  Lincoln.  Douglas  was  the  high- 
priest  of  American  demagogues, — a  fountain 
of  misrepresentations  and  appeals  to  vulgar 
prejudices.  Tricky  was  no  word  for  him,  and 
he  shifted  his  ground  so  rapidly  that  as  soon 
as  he  had  been  answered  once  he  had  to  be 
answered  again. 

Lincoln  had  the  best  of  the  argument,  but 
Douglas  carried  the  election.  Trumbull  did  all 
he  could  to  assist  Lincoln,  but  a  retired  army 
officer  at  Galena,  named  U.  S.  Grant,  voted 
for  Douglas.  It  is  also  true  that  Lincoln  was 
secretly  opposed  by  a  large  number  of  Repub- 
licans because  it  was  evident  to  the  shrewder 
sort  that  Douglas  was  breaking  up  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  just  as  Blaine  did  his  own  party 
in  1884,  and  therefore  it  was  better  for  the 
prospects  of  the  Republican  party  that  he 
should  be  elected  to  the  Senator  ship  than  that 

is; 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

Lincoln  should.  Horace  Greeley  openly  op- 
posed Lincoln  in  the  New  York  Tribune  at 
this  time,  and  it  is  supposed  that  Seward  did 
so  secretly,  though  wholly  from  motives  of 
party  interest,  and  the  result  answered  their 
expectations. 

Lincoln's  Cooper  Institute  address,  which 
followed  the  year  after  this  debate,  has  at- 
tracted more  attention  in  his  biographies  than 
it  did  at  the  time  it  was  delivered.  His  attitude 
in  it  was  a  purely  defensive  one.  He  did  not 
believe  in  interfering  with  slavery  where  it 
already  existed,  and  he  tacitly  supported  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law,  but  he  protested  earnestly 
and  even  eloquently  against  its  further  exten- 
sion. Slavery  could  never  have  been  abolished 
by  such  a  policy,  but  it  may  have  been  the  most 
practicable  policy  for  the  time  being. 

The  day  after  Abraham  Lincoln's  nomina- 
tion for  the  presidency,  a  certain  school-boy 
met  R.  W.  Emerson  in  the  streets  of  Concord 
and  asked  him  who  Abraham  Lincoln  was. 
Emerson  replied  that  Lincoln  was  an  Illinois 
lawyer  and,  he  believed,  an  excellent  man  and 
popular  in  his  own  section,  though  not  well 
known  in  the  Eastern  States.  Emerson 
seemed  as  much  surprised  as  the  boy  at  Lin- 
coln's nomination. 

158 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

When  the  leaders  and  prominent  members 
of  a  political  party  meet  in  a  national  conven- 
tion, they  meet  to  choose  a  master ;  and  in  such 
a  case  they  are  pretty  sure  to  choose  a  kind  and 
even  indulgent  master.  Now  Lincoln  was  al- 
ready known  to  be  one  of  the  kindliest  of  men ; 
whereas  Seward  afterwards  proved  himself  as 
Secretary  of  State  to  be  obstinate  and  self- 
willed,  if  not  domineering. 

It  was  not  Horace  Greeley  after  all  who  de- 
feated Seward  at  Chicago.  Greeley  was  the 
ablest  editor  of  his  time,  but  he  lacked  the  tact 
and  stability  of  character  which  are  requisite 
for  dealing  with  men.  The  man  who  might 
have  elected  Seward,  but  failed  to  do  so,  was 
Simon  Cameron.  An  examination  of  the  first 
two  ballots  makes  this  as  clear  as  day.  On  the 
first  ballot  Seward  lacked  some  forty- four  odd 
votes  for  a  nomination, — almost  exactly  the 
number  cast  by  Pennsylvania  for  Cameron. 
On  the  second  ballot  the  vote  of  Pennsylvania 
was  changed  to  Lincoln,  and  on  the  third  bal- 
lot he  was  elected.  Lamon  informs  us  that  this 
was  accomplished  by  a  direct  bargain  with 
Cameron  for  a  place  in  the  Cabinet.*  Cam- 
eron's character,  however,  was  such  that  it  is 

*  Morse,  I.,  169. 

159 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

impossible  to  determine  whether  this  was  done 
for  his  own  special  benefit  or  for  the  good  of 
the  Republican  party;  for  Seward  would  no 
doubt  have  paid  an  equal  price. 

The  sequel  to  it  is  also  worth  noting.  Cam- 
eron was  made  Secretary  of  War,  and  Seward 
took  advantage  of  the  defeat  of  Bull  Run  and 
of  some  rather  scandalous  proceedings  con- 
nected with  the  War  Office  to  have  Cameron 
relegated  to  St.  Petersburg,  which  was  only 
something  better  than  sending  him  to  Siberia. 
This  indicates  sufficiently  the  influence  which 
Seward  possessed  in  the  government  at  that 
time. 

The  day  before  the  nomination,  Lincoln  had 
written  to  his  friends  in  Chicago,  "  I  agree 
with  Seward's  irrepressible  conflict,  but  not 
with  his  higher  law.  Make  no  bargains  that 
will  bind  me."  Now  the  "  irrepressible  con- 
flict" meant  revolution,  and  the  "  higher  law" 
was  the  right  that  justified  it.  If  Lincoln's 
managers  made  any  bargains  for  him  he  would 
of  course  be  bound  by  them. 

After  the  nomination  Seward  gulped  down 
his  defeat  and  devoted  himself  body  and  soul 
to  Lincoln's  election.  Wendell  Phillips  said, 
in  an  address  after  the  event  was  over:  "See 
what  magnificent  speeches  William  H.  Sew- 

160 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

ard  has  been  making  in  the  Northwest !  When 
a  politician  ceases  to  be  a  candidate  for  the 
presidency,  he  becomes  a  man  again."  * 

There  was  never  a  more  critical  period  in  the 
history  of  a  great  nation  than  the  winter  of 
1861.  The  danger  was  that  the  hot-headed 
Southerners,  now  stimulated  to  a  white  heat 
by  the  recent  election,  would  commence  hostili- 
ties before  Lincoln  could  be  inaugurated.  This 
would  have  been  greatly  to  their  advantage, 
for  nothing  more  unfortunate  could  have  hap- 
pened for  the  Union  cause.  Seward  perceived 
this,  and  the  course  he  pursued  may  have  been 
chiefly  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  time.  Sum- 
ner  and  the  more  resolute  members  of  the  Re- 
publican party  stood  firm  against  any  conces- 
sions. Lincoln  supported  them;  but  he  said, 
"  I  have  no  objection  to  giving  the  slave-hold- 
ers New  Mexico,  and  I  approve  of  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  when  it  can  be  enforced  in  a 
decent  manner;"  that  is,  without  too  much 
opposition.  This  certainly  was  a  thin  varnish 
of  a  compromise;  others  went  various  lengths, 

Efforts  for  compromise  dragged  on  for 
two  months,  and  finally  ended  in  smoke  the 

*  The  presence  of  Tom  Hyer  and  other  New  York  roughs, 
to  howl  for  Seward  at  the  Chicago  Convention,  can  be  traced 
to  the  instrumentality  of  Thurlow  Weed. 
II  161 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

very  night  before  Lincoln's  inauguration.  The 
peculiarity  of  the  situation  gave  an  appearance 
of  weakness  to  the  Republican  councils,  which 
did  not  properly  appertain  to  them. 

Lincoln's  choice  of  a  cabinet  was  judicious, 
but  not  without  peculiarities.  That  Seward 
should  be  Secretary  of  State  was  a  matter  of 
course,  and  the  appointment  of  Chase  to  the 
Treasury  Department  could  not  have  been  im- 
proved ;  but  he  also  offered  a  place  to  Guthrie, 
of  Kentucky,  an  old  Democrat  whose  reputa- 
tion had  been  smirched  by  his  connection  with 
the  Kansas  frauds  of  1855.  Fortunately, 
Guthrie  declined,  and  Lincoln  supplied  his 
place  by  Montgomery  Blair,  of  Maryland, 
who  also  could  hardly  be  called  a  Republican. 

Lincoln  evidently  wished,  like  Washington, 
to  be  President  of  the  whole  country;  and  this 
was  a  grand  idea,  but  the  time  for  it  had  gone 
by.  The  nation  was  no  longer  whole:  it  was 
riven  and  rent,  and  could  never  be  made  whole 
again  except  by  force  and  compulsion.  Sum- 
ner  recognized  this,  but  Lincoln  and  Seward 
did  not.  Moreover,  in  Washington's  time  po- 
litical parties  were  in  an  embryonic  condition, 
but  now  the  fine  bantling  hatched  by  Jefferson 
had  grown  into  a  vulture  full  of  rage  and  ra- 
pacity. Lincoln  discovered  a  year  later  by  the 

162 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

unfriendly  treatment  of  the  Kentucky  delega- 
tion what  he  had  to  expect  from  his  political 
opponents;  and  if  he  had  taken  Guthrie  into 
a  cabinet  of  Republicans  he  would  have  caused 
great  exasperation  in  his  own  party  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  administration. 

It  was  also  noticed  that  no  Massachusetts 
man  was  selected  for  the  Cabinet.  It  had  al- 
most become  a  custom  to  do  this,  and  the  fact 
attracted  more  attention  because  Massachu- 
setts was  not  only  the  source  of  the  anti-slavery 
movement,  but  the  strongest  Republican  State 
in  the  Union.  Sumner,  however,  was  made 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, the  most  important  position  in  the  Sen- 
ate. 

No  man  could  have  entered  on  the  duties  of 
his  high  office  under  greater  disadvantages 
than  President  Lincoln. 

Leaving  out  of  account  the  revolutionary 
condition  of  the  country,  he  was  wholly  un- 
acquainted with  Washington  life  and  knew 
little  of  the  men  with  whom  he  had  to  deal. 
For  twenty  years  he  had  been  pleading  cases 
before  a  judge,  but  he  had  rarely  acted  as  a 
judge  himself.  By  this  mode  of  life  he  had 
acquired  a  wide-reaching  mental  development, 
but  it  was  not  the  development  of  a  practical 

163 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

man  of  affairs.  It  was  rather  significant  that 
he  had  never  been  a  candidate  for  governor  of 
his  own  State.  He  knew  nothing  of  foreign 
affairs,  of  finance  or  military  affairs,  except 
what  he  had  read  in  the  newspapers ;  and  these 
were  the  subjects  which  now  chiefly  demanded 
his  attention.  Fortunately,  he  had  a  logical 
mind;  but  that  he  should  have  hesitated,  and 
even  vacillated,  under  these  conditions  is  not 
surprising. 

Nicolay  and  Hay  account  for  Lincoln's  in- 
decision previous  to  the  bombardment  of  Fort 
Sumter  by  presuming  a  general  apathy  in 
the  Northern  States  with  regard  to  public  af- 
fairs. General  Grant,  however,  has  plainly 
contradicted  this  by  his  declaration  that  after 
the  call  for  troops  to  defend  the  capital  had 
been  issued,  any  of  the  larger  States  would 
readily  have  furnished  the  whole  quota.  There 
is  no  truth  in  it  at  all. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Seward  made  his 
surprising  proposition  to  run  the  machine  him- 
self and  to  threaten  war  on  France  and  Spain. 
This  seems  more  preposterous  now  than  it 
really  was,  because  we  do  not  know  its  ante- 
cedent conditions.  Seward  was  aware  of  Louis 
Napoleon's  designs  against  republicanism  in 
America  and  hoped  to  reunite  the  country 

164 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

against  a  common  foe.  He  felt  confident  that 
Napoleon  III.  would  not  go  to  war. 

Yet  Lincoln  wielded  a  power  nearly  equal 
to  the  Tsar  Alexander's,  and  when  the  war 
once  began  he  pursued  his  object  of  restoring 
the  Union  with  the  untiring  tenacity  of  a 
sleuth-hound.  He  imprisoned  the  rebellious 
Maryland  Legislature  without  form  of  law  in 
Fort  McHenry,  and  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
from  Chief -Justice  Taney  was  entirely  disre- 
garded. This  and  the  banishment  of  Vallan- 
digham  were  acts  as  revolutionary  as  secession 
itself,  but  salutary  and  justifiable.  As  soon  as 
the  President  of  the  United  States  declares 
martial  law  he  becomes  a  Roman  dictator. 

In  regard  to  the  numerous  arrests  which 
were  made  for  treasonable  purposes  in  Mary- 
land, Kentucky,  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  David 
Davis,  afterwards  Senator  from  Illinois,  wrote 
to  Mr.  Herndon: 

"  Mr.  Lincoln  was  advised,  and  I  also  so  advised 
him,  that  the  various  military  trials  in  the  Northern 
and  Border  States,  where  the  courts  were  not  free 
and  untrammelled,  were  unconditional  and  wrong; 
that  they  would  not  and  ought  not  to  be  sustained  by 
the  Supreme  Court ;  that  such  proceedings  were  dan- 
gerous to  liberty."  * 

*  Herndon,  II.,  266. 
165 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

David  Davis  was  no  legal  pedant,  and 
if  we  substitute  the  word  "  revolutionary"  for 
"  wrong"  in  his  statement,  the  situation  be- 
comes clear  at  a  glance. 

As  a  rule,  it  is  best  for  a  man  of  business 
never  to  be  familiar  with  his  subordinates ;  but 
there  is  a  certain  kind  of  American  who  can  be 
familiar  with  his  employees  and  yet  maintain 
perfect  control  over  them,  and  assert  his  dig- 
nity at  a  moment's  notice.  Lincoln  belonged 
to  this  class  of  men ;  there  was  nobody  like  him 
to  deal  with  the  great  crowd  of  office-seekers, 
complainants,  and  petty  intriguers  who  gather 
about  the  White  House  like  the  shades  on  the 
shores  of  Acheron  in  Dante's  Inferno.  Many 
of  these  it  would  not  have  been  prudent  to 
offend,  and  Lincoln  had  a  good-humored  but 
effective  way  of  dealing  with  them,  which  gen- 
erally left  a  favorable  impression  upon  their 
minds.  Some  of  the  best  anecdotes  of  Lincoln 
relate  to  these  unprofitable  interviews. 

To  a  politician  that  cautioned  him  against 
Secretary  Chase  as  a  very  ambitious  man  who 
still  had  his  eye  on  the  presidency,  Lincoln 
replied : 

"  What  you  say  reminds  me  of  the  time  when  I 
was  driving  a  mule-team  for  my  father  in  Indiana. 
A  big  black  horse-fly  lit  on  one  of  the  mules,  and  I 

166 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

struck  at  it  with  my  whip,  but  my  father  called  out 
to  me,  'Don't  you  hurt  that  fly:  it's  the  fly  that 
makes  the  mule  go.'  Now  I  take  it  to  be  Secretary 
Chase's  ambition  that  makes  him  useful  to  the  govern- 
ment." 

La  Fontaine  never  coined  a  fable  of  more 
universal  application. 

To  a  temperance  lecturer  who  warned  him 
against  General  Grant  as  too  much  addicted 
to  alcoholic  liquors,  Lincoln  said: 

"  If  I  only  knew  the  brand  of  whiskey  that  he 
drank,  I  would  send  a  keg  of  it  to  every  general  in  the 
army." 

A  Kansas  man  came  to  him  to  apply  for 
a  certain  office,  and  used  the  worst  argument 
that  he  could  have  for  the  purpose, — that  is, 
by  disparaging  a  rival  claimant.  Lincoln  re- 
plied to  him: 

"  My  friend,  did  you  ever  hear  the  story  of 
nip  and  tuck?" 

The  story  is  too  long  to  be  repeated  here, 
but  the  amount  of  it  was  that  "  if  the  other 
man  is  not  much  of  a  fellow,  he  is  quite  as  good 
as  you  are." 

Then  Lincoln  made  an  anecdote  to  the  next 
caller  of  his  own  anecdote,  and  when  the  office- 

167 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

seeker  returned  to  Kansas  he  found  "  nip  and 
tuck"  was  there  before  him. 

General  Grant  has  perpetuated  one  of  Lin- 
coln's uncouth  frontier  expressions  in  the  fig- 
ure: "  If  General  Sigel  cannot  skin  himself, 
he  can  hold  a  long  leg  while  somebody  else 
skins." 

So  many  curious  anecdotes  and  jests  have 
been  attributed  to  Lincoln  that  it  is  now  diffi- 
cult to  distinguish  those  that  are  genuine.  His 
biting  satire  on  homoeopathy,  however,  and  on 
General  McClellan  for  employing  a  homoeo- 
pathic doctor,  has  gone  round  the  world,  and 
its  authenticity  is  sufficiently  well  proven. 

A  President  who  is  not  a  match  for  the 
ablest  man  in  the  United  States  Senate  soon 
finds  himself  and  his  dignity  in  a  precarious 
position.  If  they  are  able  to  talk  him  down,  his 
real  authority  is  at  an  end.  Lincoln  could  hold 
his  ground  against  Sumner  or  Wade  as  coolly 
as  he  might  against  a  local  country  politician. 

The  administrations  of  Washington,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  and  Lincoln  were  what  might 
be  called  exemplary.  If  Washington  was 
rather  too  conventional,  Lincoln  may  have 
erred  in  the  opposite  direction;  but  they  were 
both  equally  just  and  high-minded.  There  is 
no  instance  of  his  having  practised  those  politi- 

168 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

cal  dodges  (which  have  become  so  common 
since  1881)  either  to  gain  his  own  reelection 
or  to  subserve  the  interests  of  his  party;  and 
the  flattering  parasites,  who  were  the  disgrace 
of  Grant's  administration,  found  no  encour- 
agement from  Lincoln.  He  had  learned  what 
human  nature  was  like  in  his  law-practice,  and 
had  no  intention  of  being  played  upon.  In- 
stead of  "  standing  by  his  friends,"  he  in- 
formed them  plainly  that  a  person  in  his  posi- 
tion should  have  no  friends.  It  is  as  difficult 
to  discover  an  instance  where  he  seemed  to  con- 
sider his  personal  interest  in  other  ways. 

It  is  a  small  item,  but  well  worth  noting,  that 
Lincoln  never  gave  an  office  to  his  law  partner, 
although  Herndon  might  have  filled  a  first- 
rate  position.  His  appointments  were  admi- 
rable, and  if  not  always  the  best  that  could  be 
had,  they  were  as  good  as  could  have  been  ex- 
pected in  those  distracted  times.  He  not  only 
wished  to  have  the  tribunal  of  justice  placed 
above  suspicion,  but  that  "  its  court  and  all  the 
precincts  thereof  should  be  swept  clean." 

Lincoln,  however,  was  not  an  Alexander 
Hamilton, — not  a  great  administrator  or  politi- 
cal organizer.  There  has  been  much  discussion 
on  this  subject,  but  the  strongest  witnesses  are 
not  favorable  to  him. 

169 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

First  on  this  list  we  should  place  Dr.  John 
C.  Ropes,  a  rarely  candid  historian,  who  made 
the  most  thorough  study  of  the  civil  war 
period.  That  Charles  Francis  Adams  should 
have  taken  this  view  would  not  signify  much, 
since  he  was  all  the  time  in  England;  but  we 
know  that  Seward  stands  behind  Adams,  and 
even  if  we  suppose  that  Seward  was  actuated 
by  jealous  motives,  this  would  not  apply  to 
Hugh  McCulloch,  who  was  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  after  Chase,  nor  could  it  to  John 
Tucker,  who  was  Assistant  Secretary  of 
War  under  Cameron  and  Stanton.  McCul- 
loch stated  in  print  that  Lincoln  was  not  a 
great  administrator;  and  Tucker,  who  was  the 
man  always  made  use  of  for  any  sudden  emer- 
gency or  difficult  enterprise,  was  equally  plain 
spoken  to  his  personal  friends.  Secretary 
Welles  has  argued  this  matter  in  Lincoln's 
favor,  but  his  assertion  that  Seward  was  con- 
tinually interfering  in  the  affairs  of  other  de- 
partments of  government  is  practically  an 
admission  that  Seward  had  the  managing 
hand.  Gideon  Welles  was  not  highly  reputed 
for  sagacity  in  the  American  navy,  and  this 
was  even  taken  notice  of  in  English  peri- 
odicals. Chase,  Sumner,  and  Stanton  were 


170 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

always  reticent  on  the  subject  of  Lincoln's 
executive  ability. 

He  seems  to  have  troubled  himself  too  much 
about  small  matters.  In  August,  1863,  he  sent 
for  Morton  McMichael,  of  Philadelphia,  to 
come  to  Washington  and  consult  with  him  on 
important  business.  When  McMichael  arrived 
there  he  found  that  the  business  in  question  was 
a  quarrel  between  two  Pennsylvania  politicians 
which  Mr.  Lincoln  wished  to  have  adjusted 
for  the  benefit  of  the  party.  McMichael's  re- 
ply to  him  was :  "  Mr.  President,  let  those  men 
fight.  The  more  they  fight  the  better  it  will  be 
for  the  Republican  party."  Then  he  asked 
McMichael  what  would  he  think  of  raising  an 
army  of  Irishmen  and  placing  them  under  the 
command  of  General  McClellan?  Morton  re- 
plied: "  I  think,  Mr.  President,  that  it  would 
be  a  fine  advertisement  for  McClellan  in  the 
next  presidential  campaign."  * 

President  Lincoln's  interference  with  the 
plans  of  General  McClellan  might  serve  as  a 
subject  for  a  debating  society.  There  was  no 
real  danger  that  Stonewall  Jackson  would  at- 
tack a  fortified  city  with  General  Fremont's 
army  coming  up  in  his  rear.  If  McClellan's 

*  This  incident  was  related  by  Henry  C.  Carey  in  presence 
of  Mr.  Tucker  and  others  who  knew  the  facts. 

171 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

original  plan  had  been  carried  out,  Jackson's 
communications  would  have  been  cut,  and  his 
command  would  either  have  been  captured  or 
dispersed. 

Seward  and  Lincoln's  other  advisers  (ex- 
cepting Chase)  were  equally  responsible  for 
this  fiasco;  but  in  the  catastrophe  which  over- 
took General  Rosecrans's  army  Lincoln's  own 
hand  is  plainly  visible. 

After  Gettysburg  and  Vicksburg  the  Con- 
federate forces  were  so  much  weakened  that  a 
vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  might  have 
brought  it  to  a  timely  close.  Instead  of  this, 
however,  President  Lincoln  detained  General 
Grant  in  Mississippi  to  pacify  the  country 
and  expedite  a  hasty  reconstruction;  he  per- 
mitted General  Meade,  a  purely  defensive 
commander,  to  dally  with  Lee  in  Virginia;  and 
urged  General  Rosecrans  to  push  into  the 
mountains  of  Tennessee  in  order  to  prepare 
that  State  for  reconstruction.*  The  conse- 
quence was  inevitable.  The  Confederate  gov- 
ernment was  allowed  time  to  recuperate  and 
its  whole  force  was  thrown  on  General  Rose- 
crans, who  was  defeated  in  a  bloody  and  stoutly 
contested  battle.  After  this  Congress  passed  a 

*  Morse,  II.,  163. 
172 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

bill  creating  Grant  a  lieutenant-general,  and 
placing  him  in  command  of  all  the  Union 
forces,  so  as  to  prevent  Lincoln  from  inter- 
fering again. 

President  Lincoln's  faults  as  a  statesman 
evidently  arose  from  preconceived  notions. 
Instead  of  adapting  his  plans  to  circumstances, 
he  endeavored  to  adapt  circumstances  to  his 
plans. 

Conspicuous  in  this  line  was  his  idea  of  colo- 
nization. He  sent  for  a  delegation  of  the  more 
important  colored  people  and  discoursed  to 
them  in  regard  to  the  expediency  of  their 
returning  to  Africa.  They  listened  to  him 
respectfully,  but  declined  to  go.  He  recurred 
to  this  possibility  a  number  of  times,  but  noth- 
ing could  be  more  impracticable.  Lincoln  real- 
ized that  the  black  man  was  a  disturbing  ele- 
ment in  politics,  but  he  did  not  realize  how 
necessary  he  was  to  the  cotton  planter  and  the 
sugar  grower.  The  deportation  of  the  negro 
race  would  have  caused  greater  distress  than 
the  civil  war. 

Was  it  a  civil  war?  It  was  considered  so, 
but  it  had  all  the  characteristics  of  a  foreign 
war.  After  the  Southerners  had  shed  blood 
and  acquired  the  rights  of  belligerents,  they 
became  practically  a  foreign  nation.  If  Lin- 

173 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

coin  had  recognized  this,  he  would  not  perhaps 
have  made  those  premature  attempts  at  recon- 
struction which  so  much  embarrassed  the 
Union  generals.  In  September,  1863,  the 
President  sent  an  order  to  Governor  Johnson 
in  Tennessee  in  regard  to  reconstruction,  to 
which  Governor  Johnson  replied  that  if  it  were 
put  in  execution  every  Union  man  would  be 
driven  out  of  the  State.  The  President  then 
rescinded  his  order.* 

Lincoln  met  with  many  such  rebuffs;  but 
the  most  signal  of  them  was  on  his  final  propo- 
sition to  offer  the  secessionists  three  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  if  they  would  lay  down  their 
arms  and  return  to  their  allegiance.  Every 
man  in  his  Cabinet  stood  against  the  proposal, 
and  no  wonder.  It  is  much  to  their  credit  that 
they  kept  silent  about  it,  for  if  it  had  been 
made  public,  Lincoln's  popularity  in  the  loyal 
States  would  have  been  ruined.  The  plan  was 
impracticable,  for  Congress  would  not  have 
granted  a  penny  for  the  purpose.  Further 
than  this,  if  the  offer  had  been  made  and  ac- 
cepted, several  millions  of  that  money  would 
have  been  used  to  carry  the  next  election  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  and,  if  successful, 

*  Governor  Johnson  showed  both  the  order  and  his  reply  to 
Major   Stearns. 

174 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

the  slave-holders  would  again  have  come  into 
power,  with  all  the  evils  of  a  counter-revolu- 
tion. 

Lincoln  behaved  well  in  the  case  of  the  Con- 
federate envoys  who  were  illegally  seized  upon 
the  steamer  Trent,  but  he  might  have  done 
better.  If  he  had  reprimanded  Captain  Wilkes 
and  forwarded  Mason  and  Slidell  to  England 
by  the  next  steamer  he  would  have  done  what 
was  just  and  right;  he  would  have  prevented 
the  foolish  clamor  that  was  made  in  the  North- 
ern States  over  this  small  affair,  and  he  would 
have  spiked  Lord  Palmerston's  guns  before 
they  were  fairly  loaded.  A  statement  made  by 
Nicolay  and  Hay  that  Seward  was  at  first  op- 
posed to  the  surrender  of  the  envoys  is  quite 
incredible  and  lacks  confirmation.* 

Hugh  McCulloch  says,  "  All  contributed  to 
the  emancipation."  This  is  only  too  true.  Not 
only  the  existing  government,  but  Lundy, 
Phillips,  Garrison,  Greeley,  Beecher,  Lovejoy, 
Parker,  Emerson,  and,  above  all  others,  Sum- 
ner  and  John  Brown,  of  Ossawatomie.  It  is 
an  almost  universal  mistake  to  suppose  that 
President  Lincoln  abolished  slavery  in  the 
United  States.  He  had  no  power  to  do  it.  He 


*  Morse,  I.,  385. 

175 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

did  what  he  could  as  the  nation's  executive,  but 
he  did  nothing  to  stimulate  public  sentiment  in 
that  direction,  and  without  the  support  of  pub- 
lic sentiment  he  would  not  have  dared  to  issue 
his  proclamation. 

Slavery  was  abolished  by  a  series  of  meas- 
ures which  began  in  the  second  month  of  the 
war,  and  was  only  completed  in  February,  1865. 

The  first  of  these  was  Secretary  Cameron's 
order  to  General  Butler  to  treat  fugitive  slaves 
as  contraband  of  war;  for  which  Butler  has 
received  more  credit  than  he  deserved. 

In  January,  1862,  Senator  Wilson  intro- 
duced a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  with  moderate  compen- 
sation. This  was  passed  and  approved.  At 
the  same  time  Lincoln  proposed  a  similar  meas- 
ure to  the  Kentucky  representatives,  but  they 
did  not  receive  his  advice  in  a  gracious  manner. 

In  May  of  the  same  year  Congress  passed  a 
law  authorizing  the  Union  generals  to  confis- 
cate the  slaves  of  rebels  and  make  use  of  them 
for  military  purposes.  Shortly  after  this  Sum- 
ner  introduced  a  bill  as  a  supplement  to  it  for 
the  organization  of  negro  regiments.  This 
legislation  would  have  emancipated  the  slaves 
as  fast  as  the  rebellious  States  were  subdued. 

Lincoln's  proclamation  was  substantially  a 
176 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

summing-up  of  previous  measures,  and  it  gave 
them  a  solidity  and  force  which  they  otherwise 
would  not  have  had.  He  wrote  the  first  draft 
in  June,  but  at  Seward's  suggestion  he  de- 
ferred its  publication  until  September.  Mean- 
while he  acted  regarding  it  as  if  he  were  afraid 
that  some  one  would  steal  the  credit  of  it  from 
him.  He  informed  his  Cabinet  at  the  outset 
that  he  intended  to  issue  it,  whether  they  liked 
it  or  not;  and  when  a  delegation  of  Chicago 
clergymen  called  on  him  in  August  and  urged 
him  to  issue  it — not  being  aware  that  it  was 
already  written — he  treated  them  in  an  un- 
friendly and  not  very  gracious  manner.* 

When  they  informed  him  that  they  felt  di- 
vinely inspired  to  appeal  to  him  for  the  libera- 
tion of  the  slave,  he  replied  substantially  that 
he  did  not  consider  divine  inspiration  to  be 
limited  to  their  profession,  and  that  he  believed 
himself  as  capable  of  becoming  the  recipient 
of  it  as  they  were.  The  reverend  gentlemen 
may  have  understood  the  meaning  of  this  after 
the  proclamation  was  issued,  but  they  could 
not  possibly  have  done  so  at  the  time. 

The  final  proclamation,  issued  on  January 
1,  1863,  excepted  from  its  operation  six  States 

*  Morse,  II.,  118. 
12  177 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

containing  above  a  million  of  slaves.  It  was 
based  on  military  necessity  and  the  dictatorial 
power  of  the  President.  Nothing  was  said  in 
it  of  the  moral  or  ethical  character  of  the  act 
until  Secretary  Chase  suggested  this  and  wrote 
out  the  eloquent  passage  in  which  it  says:  "  By 
doing  justice  to  the  black  man  we  insure  free- 
dom to  the  white,"  or  words  to  that  effect. 

Finally,  late  in  January,  1865,  Congress  en- 
acted a  constitutional  amendment  abolishing 
slavery  forever  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
United  States.  The  President  did  not  wholly 
approve  of  this,  because  it  did  not  allow  com- 
pensation for  the  slaves  of  loyal  owners. 
There  may  have  been  some  loyal  owners,  but 
they  were  very  few. 

Lincoln's  real  talent  was  of  the  forensic  or- 
der. Give  him  an  argument,  and  he  was  at 
home  in  it.  Many  of  his  efforts  in  this  line  are 
models.  His  explanation  to  the  public  in  re- 
gard to  the  arrest  and  banishment  of  Vallan- 
digham  was  an  admirable  statement.  Casuists 
might  discover  pinholes  in  his  logic,  but  it  was 
enough  to  satisfy  any  reasonable  person.  His 
messages  to  Congress  have  a  dignity,  a  plain- 
ness, and  directness  very  rare  in  that  class  of 
documents.  Matthew  Arnold  considered  Lin- 
coln a  sagacious  man,  but  lacking  in  distinc- 

178 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

tion.  He  seems  to  me  to  have  achieved  a  higher 
distinction  in  literature  than  Matthew  Arnold. 
His  Gettysburg. address  is  one  of  the  poetic 
gems  of  history,  and  is  likely  to  live  as  long  as 
any  literature  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Im- 
prove upon  it,  you  cannot. 

The  connection  between  Lincoln's  assassina- 
tion and  the  play  of  "  Julius  Csesar"  is  start- 
ling. Wilkes  Booth  had  acted  in  that  play  a 
number  of  times,  and  on  one  occasion  he  be- 
came so  excited  in  the  part  of  Cassius  that  the 
other  actors  are  said  to  have  been  afraid  for 
their  lives.  He  was  a  bad  actor  and  a  wild, 
disorderly  fellow. 

It  is  a  pity  that  the  performance  of  "  Julius 
Caesar"  cannot  be  interdicted  in  this  era  of  as- 
sassination. All  the  anarchist  brotherhood  find 
strong  support  in  Antony's  final  apostrophe  to 
Brutus,  "  This  was  the  noblest  Roman  of  them 
all."  What  an  encouragement  to  crime!  So 
far  from  being  the  noblest  Roman,  Brutus  was 
the  most  contemptible  of  all  his  race;  and 
Dante  has  shown  a  more  just  appreciation  of 
his  character  than  Shakespeare  by  placing  him 
on  a  level  with  Judas  Iscariot. 

According  to  Herndon,  the  religious  views 
of  Lincoln  were  similar  to  those  of  Summer, 
Parker,  Emerson,  and  all  the  American  literati 

179 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

of  that  time.  He  believed  in  God  and  immor- 
tality, and  beyond  that  he  held  no  very  definite 
religious  faith;  nor  did  he  consider  it  wise  to 
hold  strict  opinions  on  subjects  concerning 
which  we  can  know  and  understand  so  little. 
It  would  not  be  possible  now  to  nominate  such 
a  man  for  the  presidency. 

In  Morse's  biography  of  Lincoln  we  find  the 
following : 

"  Since  white  men  first  landed  on  this  continent, 
the  selection  of  Washington  to  lead  the  army  of  the 
Revolution  is  the  only  event  to  be  compared  in  good 
fortune  with  this  nomination  of  Abraham  Lincoln."  * 

Lincoln  was  certainly  one  of  the  best  men 
of  his  time,  and  a  great  figure  in  those  days; 
but  there  is  no  good  reason  for  supposing  that 
he  was  exceptional  in  the  sense  that  Washing- 
ton was  exceptional  in  1775.  He  was  not  a 
great  party  leader  like  Seward,  nor  a  great 
legislative  statesman  like  Sumner,  while  Chase 
combined  the  best  qualities  of  either  without 
quite  equalling  them  in  their  respective  lines. 
Herndon  considers  Trumbull  very  nearly 
equal  to  Lincoln  in  forensic  power,  and  his 
character  as  a  man  still  remains  without  a 


Morse,  I.,  171. 
180 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

reproach.  When  Trumbull  entered  the  Sen- 
ate Douglas  was  shorn  of  his  terrors  in  debate. 
If  either  Chase  or  Trumbull  had  been  nomi- 
nated in  1860,  the  result  might  have  been  much 
the  same  that  it  was.  We  might  not  have  had 
Lincoln's  Gettysburg  address,  but  they  might 
have  infused  greater  energy  into  the  adminis- 
tration of  affairs.  The  style  and  manner  of 
the  two  men  were  suggestive  of  this. 

It  would  be  difficult  and  hardly  advisable  to 
compare  Lincoln  with  Washington;  but  this 
at  least  may  be  said.  It  is  true  that  Lincoln 
carried  on  war  on  a  vastly  greater  scale  than 
Washington,  but  he  had  also  vastly  greater 
aids  and  advantages.  He  never  suffered  from 
the  lack  of  men  or  money.  The  governors  of 
the  States  supplied  the  one;  Chase  and  the 
bankers  the  other.  Neither  was  the  capital 
of  the  country  seriously  in  danger  at  any  time 
during  Lincoln's  administration.  He  never 
met  with  an  experience  like  Washington's  win- 
ter at  Valley  Forge;  nor  was  he  obliged  to 
withstand  a  severe  shock  of  public  opinion, 
like  the  Francomania  of  1794.  Although  Lin- 
coln's administration  was  a  stormy  one,  he  was 
not  tested  at  any  time  by  the  severest  shocks  or 
great  vicissitudes  of  fortune.  It  may  also  be 
affirmed  that  it  is  difficult  to  separate  Lincoln's 

181 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

acts  historically  from  those  of  his  Cabinet. 
His  administration  has  to  be  taken  as  a  whole. 

There  are  few  figures  in  history  which  stand 
before  the  mind  so  clearly  and  sharply  defined 
as  Washington.  He  has  become  a  type,  a  rare 
type,  of  human  excellence,  and  will  remain  so 
to  future  generations.  He  occupied  the  two 
highest  positions  that  are  possible  in  any  nation, 
— the  general  of  its  armies  and  its  chief  execu- 
tive ;  and  he  filled  them  both  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  excite  universal  commendation.  During 
fifteen  years  of  public  service  he  not  only  com- 
mitted no  blunders,  but  made  no  conspicuous 
errors  of  judgment.  A  serious  mistake  on  his 
part  during  the  war  of  independence  would 
have  imperilled  and  might  have  proved  the  ruin 
of  the  American  cause.  He  has  not  been  in- 
appropriately styled  the  father  of  his  country ; 
and  if  Lincoln  did  not  equal  this,  he  can  at  least 
be  considered  one  of  the  noblest  of  her  sons. 
He  served  as  a  balance-wheel  to  all  the  conflict- 
ing and  divergent  forces  of  the  civil  war. 

Lincoln  was  in  fact  a  government  of  checks 
and  balances  all  in  himself.  He  was  a  restraint 
upon  Se ward's  centrifugal  tendencies ;  checked 
the  hasty  rushing  of  Fremont  into  a  premature 
emancipation,  and  McClellan  from  an  equally 

dangerous  reactionary   policy.      The  tactful 

182 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 

manner  in  which  he  continued  to  preserve  cor- 
dial relations  with  both  Sumner  and  Seward, 
who  were  always  in  antagonism  on  national 
politics  and  often  at  variance  in  regard  to  for- 
eign affairs,  is  illustrative  of  Lincoln's  general 
method  and  deserving  of  the  highest  praise. 
In  a  period  of  the  greatest  public  excitement 
he  ever  preserved  a  cool  judgment  and  gave 
to  revolutionary  acts  an  appearance  of  legality 
which  was  sure  to  have  a  salutary  effect  on  that 
large  class  of  persons  who  do  not  understand 
the  revolutionary  principle.  It  was  at  least 
fortunate  that  he  was  nominated  at  Chicago 
instead  of  Seward,  who  sometimes  appears 
before  us  like  a  clear-sighted  statesman  and  at 
others  like  a  reckless  political  'gambler. 

He  was  a  unique  man;  but  to  designate  him, 
like  Lowell,  as  the  first  of  all  Americans  is 
radically  vicious  in  itself,  and  even  carries  with 
it  a  suspicion  of  partisan  insincerity.  It  was 
af:er  all  neither  Lincoln  nor  Grant  that  sup- 
pressed the  slave-holders'  rebellion,  so  much  as 
the  industrial  classes  of  the  Northern  States, 
wk>  were  determined,  cost  what  it  might,  that 
slavery  should  be  abolished,  that  labor  should 
henceforth  be  respected,  and  that  the  laborer 
should  be  assured  of  a  compensation  for  his 
toi. 

183 


THE   WINTER   OF   1861. 

IN  1871  Prince  Bismarck  established  a  pro- 
fessorship for  the  study  of  the  constitutional 
history  of  the  United  States  at  Strasburg,  and 
Herman  von  Hoist  was  appointed  to  the  chair 
at  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Frederick  Kapp,  au- 
thor of  "  The  Hessians  in  America,"  and  for 
many  years  secretary  of  the  Prussian  parlia- 
ment. Such  was  the  origin  of  Von  Hoist's 
"  History  of  American  Politics,"  and  in  con- 
sidering the  work  we  should  also  recollect 
the  object  which  Bismarck  had  in  view  in 
founding  the  Strasburg  professorship.  Von 
Hoist's  first  volume,  however,  which  treats 
of  the  opposition  of  Jeff ersonian  democracy 
to  establishing  the  national  government,  is  al- 
together the  most  valuable  portion  of  Ms 
lengthy  work ;  and,  although  he  does  not  view 
the  subject  with  the  eyes  of  an  American  of 
our  own  time,  it  is  all  the  more  instructive  for 
that  reason. 

His  first  volume  is  in  a  manner  complete  in 
itself,  for  the  second  does  not  follow  it  exacty 
in  chronological  order;  and  it  is  evident  that 
his  writing  the  history  of  the  anti-slavery 

184 


THE  WINTER  OF  1861 

movement  was  an  after-thought.  This  does 
not  differ  essentially  from  other  histories  on 
the  same  subject,  written  from  an  anti-slavery 
stand-point;  and  it  is  generally  admitted  that 
down  to  the  year  1859  it  is  an  interesting  and 
fairly  satisfactory  work;  yet  it  is  not  devoid 
of  certain  peculiarities  which  seem  to  have  the 
character  of  personal  prejudices. 

It  is  surprising  that  in  his  account  of  the  rise 
of  the  anti-slavery  movement  he  has  said  noth- 
ing of  the  Lovejoy  meeting  in  Boston,  and  of 
the  acquisition  to  the  cause  of  Dr.  Channing 
and  Wendell  Phillips.  What  an  advantage 
this  was  to  the  anti -slavery  cause!  Channing 
was  the  most  distinguished  clergyman  of  his 
day,  and  Phillips's  impassioned  oratory,  if  it 
did  not  convince  the  old,  had  great  influence 
upon  the  young,  which  at  that  time  was  much 
more  important.  While  the  Liberator  was 
read  by  hundreds,  Phillips's  fearless  utterances 
were  listened  to  by  thousands.  Yet  Wendell 
Phillips's  name  does  not  appear  anywhere  on 
Von  Hoist's  pages,  excepting  in  two  foot- 
notes in  the  last  volume.  A  history  of  the  anti- 
slavery  movement  without  Wendell  Phillips 
is  like  the  play  of  "  Julius  Caesar"  without 
Antony. 

In  regard  to  Webster,  he  makes  some  excel- 
185 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

lent  points,  but  evidently  does  not  realize  the 
value  of  his  reply  to  Hayne  as  a  constitutional 
statement,  nor  the  influence  which  it  exercised 
on  the  fortunes  of  the  republic.  As  Senator 
Hoar  has  said,  when  the  war  for  the  Union 
began  our  cannon  were  loaded  with  Webster's 
reply  to  Hayne. 

Von  Hoist  does  Sumner  better  justice,  but 
he  treats  his  great  speech  on  the  "  Crime 
against  Kansas"  in  rather  a  caustic  manner, 
and  is  more  amused  by  Sumner's  classic  quota- 
tions than  impressed  by  the  strength  of  his 
argument  and  the  seriousness  of  the  occasion. 

These,  however,  are  the  only  points  of  dis- 
agreement which  I  find  to  complain  of  in  the 
first  four  volumes  of  his  history,  though  others 
might  discover  different  objections.  So  far  he 
has  given  a  fairly  just  picture  of  United 
States  politics;  but  in  his  last  volume  he  be- 
comes too  censorious, — does  not  represent  the 
grand  march  of  events  which  culminated  in 
war  like  the  fifth  act  to  a  tragedy,  but  dwells 
long  and  painfully  on  the  futile  attempts  of 
individuals  to  arrest  the  progress  of  forces 
which  no  human  agency  could  control.  He 
would  seem  to  have  forgotten  the  Kentucky 
and  Virginia  resolutions,  on  which  he  laid  so 
much  stress  in  his  first  volume,  and  which, 

186 


THE  WINTER  OF  1861 

handed  from  generation  to  generation,  had 
come  to  be  a  political  gospel,  which  the  slave- 
holders believed  in  more  devoutly  than  in  their 
religious  faith.  It  was  the  doctrine  that  every 
man  owed  his  service  to  his  native  State  in 
preference  to  his  country,  which  was  hurrying 
them  on  to  destruction,  as  if  they  were  all  on 
an  express  train  with  a  misplaced  switch  in 
front  of  the  engine.  It  is  erroneous  ideas  that 
cause  the  great  calamities  of  history. 

Neither  does  Von  Hoist  seem  to  realize  that 
it  was  non-coercion  and  faith  in  the  Jefferso- 
nian  maxim,  that  the  right  to  govern  depends 
on  the  consent  of  the  governed,  that  paralyzed 
the  hands  of  loyal  men  of  both  parties.  They 
were  sworn  to  obey  the  Constitution,  but  they 
also  believed  in  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence; and  if  all  persons  were  born  free,  how 
could  they  be  justly  constrained  to  obey  a  gov- 
ernment which  was  odious  to  them?  *  With 
such  political  principles,  a  weak  man  like  Presi- 
dent Buchanan  appears  like  the  ass  between 
two  bundles  of  hay ;  but  the  type  included  also 
strong  patriotic  men  like  Corwin  and  Adams. 
Yet  Von  Hoist  blames  these  persons  individu- 
ally instead  of  explaining  the  difficulty  under 

*  Few  Americans  yet  realize  that  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence is  a  revolutionary  document. 

187 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

which  they  labored.  In  the  winter  of  1861  the 
stanchest  Union  men  were  the  so-called  ideal- 
ists, like  Sumner  and  Greeley,  who  considered 
the  chief  object  of  government  was  to  enact 
justice.  Von  Hoist  gives  them  no  credit  for 
their  firmness ;  but  he  praises  Lincoln  for  pro- 
testing against  compromise,  although  Lincoln 
handicapped  this  by  supporting  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  which  was  itself  an  impracticable 
compromise. 

His  chapter  on  John  Brown's  invasion  of 
Virginia  is  one  of  the  best  in  the  volume, 
though  it  shows  in  places  a  tendency  to  hedge, 
as  if  he  were  writing  for  two  readers  of  differ- 
ent opinions.  Julian  Hawthorne  once  said  of 
Thackeray's  Colonel  Newcome,  that  he  was  the 
finest  type  of  a  gentleman  in  fiction,  and  that 
his  narrow-mindedness  only  made  this  more 
conspicuous.  In  like  manner,  John  Brown's 
heroism  appears  more  conspicuous  from  his 
desperation  and  lack  of  foresight.  Von  Hoist 
appreciates  this,  as  well  as  the  moral  grandeur 
of  his  prison  life  and  execution,  but  he  weakens 
his  statement  by  separating  Brown  from  his 
Eastern  friends.  John  Brown,  taken  by  him- 
self, was  much,  but  more  with  the  background 
of  Theodore  Parker,  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe,  Emer- 
son, and  John  A.  Andrew,  who  stand  forth  as 

188 


THE  WINTER  OF  1861 

an  expression  of  the  highest  thought  and  finest 
culture  of  modern  times.  Von  Hoist  cannot 
plead  ignorance  of  this,  for  Parker,  Emerson, 
and  Howe  were  much  better  known  in  Ger- 
many or  England  than  the  names  of  many  of 
our  Presidents. 

Neither  has  he  taken  notice  of  the  enthusi- 
astic John  Brown  meetings  which  were  held 
in  Brooklyn,  Boston,  Salem,  and  other  places; 
but  he  has  not  neglected  to  mention  an  oppo- 
sition meeting  held  in  New  York  City,  at  which 
Charles  O'Conor  pronounced  a  sort  of  fune- 
real panegyric  on  slavery.  He  refers  to  the 
fact  that  the  United  States  Senate  appointed 
a  committee  to  investigate  the  Harper's  Ferry 
raid,  and  then  leaves  the  reader  in  darkness  as 
to  the  result  of  this  investigation,  for  that 
would  bring  him  upon  ground  which  he  has 
determined  not  to  cultivate. 

The  same  reason  may  explain  why  he  does 
not  credit  Sumner,  King,  Wade,  Wilson,  and 
others,  who  firmly  opposed  compromise  in 
1861,  and  finally  defeated  both  Crittenden's 
compromise  and  the  propositions  of  the  Peace 
Congress.  He  had  no  excuse  for  neglecting 
to  do  this,  for  I  provided  him  with  conclusive 
information  on  the  subject  long  before  his  final 
volume  went  to  press.  Sumner  was  the  recog- 

189 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

nized  leader  of  this  minority,  but  altogether 
they  formed  the  backbone  of  the  Republican 
party  during  the  Civil  War.  They  did  not 
flood  the  halls  of  Congress  with  patriotic  elo- 
quence, because  they  knew  how  to  make  their 
force  felt  in  a  more  effective  manner. 

Seward  had  repeatedly  predicted  a  peaceable 
settlement  of  the  slavery  question,  and  had 
ridiculed  the  idea  of  secession,  because  it  was 
for  the  interest  of  his  party  that  he  should  do 
so.  How  far  such  a  man  really  believes  what 
he  says,  it  is  impossible  to  judge;  but  now 
Seward  was  compelled  to  face  a  condition  of 
affairs  to  which  he  could  not  very  well  blind 
himself.  There  were  all  shades  of  opinion  in 
regard  to  compromise  among  the  Republicans 
and  border  State  representatives ;  but  they  can 
be  satisfactorily  divided  into  three  classes. 
There  were  those,  like  Sumner  and  Lincoln, 
who  believed  that  compromise  would  be  preju- 
dicial to  the  true  interests  of  the  nation ;  those 
like  Crittenden,  who  believed  that  the  salvation 
of  the  United  States  depended  upon  compro- 
mise ;  and  between  these  two  classes  there  were 
those  who  felt  little  faith  in  compromise,  but 
who  thought  an  effort  ought  to  be  made  in 
that  direction,  and  were  ready  to  support 
the  attempt.  How  was  Seward,  as  a  party 

190 


THE  WINTER  OF  1861 

leader,  to  unite  these  various  elements  in  a 
common  cause?  That  was  the  problem  of 
the  hour. 

Quite  contrary  to  this,  Von  Hoist  judges  of 
Seward's  course  in  the  winter  of  1861  precisely 
as  Sumner  and  his  friends  judged  it.  One 
would  suppose  that  he  had  been  talking  with 
Sumner's  old  friends.  I  do  not  feel  sure  that 
they  were  in  the  right.  There  was  more  of  the 
fox  than  of  the  lion  in  Seward's  composition, 
and,  as  the  parliamentary  leader  of  his  party, 
he  was  in  a  different  position  from  Sum- 
ner. Let  us  suppose  that  Seward's  main  ob- 
ject was  to  have  Lincoln  safely  inaugurated 
before  hostilities  commenced,  and  his  whole 
conduct  becomes  intelligible.  He  plays  with 
compromise  as  a  cat  does  with  a  mouse,  only 
to  gain  time  until  the  Republican  party  shall 
come  into  power.  It  is  here  that  Von  Hoist 
shows  himself  the  unpractical  professor.  Bu- 
chanan was  President  only  in  name,  and  no 
greater  misfortune  could  have  happened  than 
that  war  should  have  begun  under  his  auspices. 
It  might  have  resulted  in  Lincoln's  being  in- 
augurated in  Philadelphia. 

What  makes  this  view  of  the  case  seem  more 
probable  is  that  after  the  inauguration  Seward 
was  firmness  itself.  He  refused  to  negotiate 

191 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

with  the  rebel  commissioners,*  and  this  was 
what  precipitated  the  war;  he  overpowered 
General  Scott  when  Scott  stood  in  the  way  of 
energetic  measures;  he  had  General  Meigs 
promoted  in  spite  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
and  he  had  Fort  Pickens  re-enforced  in  spite 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  No  wonder  if 
Gideon  Welles  complained  that  Se ward's  chief 
business  seemed  to  be  interference  with  the 
other  departments. 

Whether  Seward's  policy  was  the  result  of 
deliberate  foresight  or  arose  from  the  tact  of 
the  practical  politician  who  adapts  himself  to 
the  varying  conditions  of  public  events,  it  cer- 
tainly resulted  very  fortunately,  for  valuable 
time  was  gained,  and  the  rebellious  States  were 
placed  in  a  position  of  absolute  responsibility 
before  the  civilized  world  for  whatever  might 
follow.  The  only  danger  lurking  in  this  policy 
was  that  the  slavocracy  might  accept  the  peace 
propositions  held  out  to  them  by  the  Republi- 
can leaders;  but  Seward  had  his  spies  in  the 
South  and  knew  the  temper  of  the  people 
there,  t 

*  At  the  same  time  he  coquetted  with  them  unofficially,  and 
appears  to  have  deceived  them  in  regard  to  his  real  intentions, 

f  The  Southern  editors  had  much  to  say  about  this,  and  they 
were  not  far  wrong.  I  afterwards  became  acquainted  with  one 
of  Seward's  spies,  who  was  living  in  his  old  age  at  Atlantic  City. 

192 


THE  WINTER  OF  1861 

In  his  celebrated  speech  of  February  2,  Sew- 
ard  said:  "  I  have  thought  it  my  duty  to  hold 
myself  open  and  ready  for  the  best  adjustment 
which  could  be  practically  made ;"  but  he  also 
said,  "If  this  Union  is  to  stand  or  fall  by  the 
force  of  arms,  I  have  advised  my  people  to  do 
as  I  shall  be  ready  to  do  myself — to  stand  in 
the  breach,  and  stand  with  it  or  perish  with  it." 
These  two  sentences  sufficiently  indicate  Sew- 
ard's  position. 

The  superior  moral  tone  which  Von  Hoist 
discovers  in  the  Western  States  reminds  us  of 
the  enthusiasm  in  Kentucky  for  the  War  of 
1812 — because  it  was  the  farthest  removed 
from  danger.  The  slave-holders  were  heavily 
indebted  to  merchants  and  bankers  in  the  East- 
ern cities.  We  have  no  wish  to  discredit  the 
true  manliness  of  the  Western  Republican,  but 
among  masses  of  men  material  interests  com- 
monly have  the  greatest  force.  We  have  never 
heard  that  any  one  State  in  the  Union  sur- 
passed the  others  in  courage  or  patriotism,  and 
some  of  the  bravest  officers  of  the  war  came 
from  the  city  of  William  Penn. 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  volume  is  ex- 
pended in  a  sort  of  wrangle  over  George  T. 
Curtis's  "  Life  of  Buchanan,"  a  book  that  was 
not  much  approved  of,  even  by  the  old  Web- 
13  193 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

ster  Whigs.  The  best  that  can  be  said  for  Bu- 
chanan is  that  he  was  remarkably  well  suited 
to  his  situation.  If  he  was  pusillanimous,  the 
government  was  not  less  impotent.  He  had 
no  army  with  which  to  repress  rebellion  and  no 
authority  to  enlist  troops.  There  were  no  ap- 
propriations for  the  purpose,  and  his  Cabinet 
was  in  a  continual  state  of  dissolution.  He  was 
a  President  without  a  partisan.  His  Southern 
supporters  had  seceded  and  his  Northern  sup- 
porters had  gone  over  to  Douglas.  That  he 
neglected  to  garrison  the  Southern  forts  and 
made  no  effort  to  stem  the  tide  of  rebellion  is 
perfectly  true. 

Von  Hoist  says  (page  399) : 

"  But  to  escape  civil  war  was  impossible,  no 
matter  what  was  done  or  not  done."  And  in 
the  same  paragraph: 

"  And  conversely,  the  sooner  it  was  demon- 
strated by  deeds  that  the  Federal  government 
was  terribly  in  earnest  in  its  resolve  to  suppress 
the  rebellion,  the  shorter  in  all  probability 
would  be  its  duration  and  the  less  the  sacrifice 
of  blood  and  treasure." 

These  two  statements  are  in  a  manner  con- 
tradictory, for  if  the  war  was  bound  to  come, 
a  premature  suppression  of  it  could  only  have 
resulted  in  its  breaking  out  again  at  the  first 

194 


THE  WINTER  OF  1861 

convenient  opportunity.  As  George  L. 
Stearns  said,  the  defeat  of  Bull  Run  was  the 
first  step  towards  the  liberation  of  the  slave. 

The  close  of  the  volume,  however,  is  worthy 
of  a  great  writer.  He  says,  page  459 :  "  When 
the  Confederacy  forced  the  sword  into  the  un- 
willing hand  of  the  North  to  fight  for  the 
Union,  it  compelled  it  at  the  same  time  not  to 
lay  it  aside  until  it  had  destroyed  slavery  with 
it ;  for  in  the  very  nature  of  things  the  destruc- 
tion of  slavery  was  a  precondition  of  the  resto- 
ration of  the  Union." 

This  is  what  James  Russell  Lowell  would 
have  called  the  gist  of  the  whole  matter.  There 
is  no  talk  of  secession  in  the  Southern  States 
now.  Lowell  saw  it;  Sumner,  Chase,  and  An- 
drew saw  it ;  but  whether  Lincoln  and  Seward 
realized  this  is  not  certain. 


195 


SOUTHERN   RECONSTRUCTION 

NATIONS  are  made  by  rivers  and  separated 
by  mountains  or  the  sea.  Egypt  was  made  by 
the  Nile,  Assyria  by  the  Euphrates.  Germany 
was  formed  by  the  rivers  running  northward 
from  the  Alps,  and  France  by  those  running 
eastward  from  the  Jura  and  Vosges,  which 
separate  the  two  countries.  North  America  is 
naturally  divided  into  four  geographical  habi- 
tats: the  Atlantic  coast,  the  Pacific  coast,  the 
Mississippi  basin,  and  the  St.  Lawrence  basin. 
The  necessity  of  trade  communications  with 
Europe,  however,  binds  the  central  portion  of 
the  United  States  to  the  eastern  portion  by  an 
indissoluble  tie;  and  the  southwestern  States 
are  bound  to  the  northwestern  by  the  great 
waterways  which  traverse  them. 

On  the  contrary,  there  is  no  essential  con- 
nection or  political  relationship  between  the  St. 
Lawrence  basin  and  the  United  States  terri- 
tory. Canada  may  become  annexed  to  the 
United  States  if  the  Canadians  ever  desire  it, 
but  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  is  the  mili- 
tary key  to  all  British  America,  and  it  is  not 

196 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

likely  that  the  British  government  would  sur- 
render it  without  a  hard  struggle. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  the  States  which 
seceded  from  the  Union  in  1861  should  have 
chosen  for  the  name  of  their  government  the 
Confederate  States  of  America.  It  seems  al- 
most like  a  parody  on  the  name  of  the  United 
States.  The  question  might  have  well  been 
asked,  Why  should  two  nations  with  the  same 
name  substantially,  and  constitutions  almost 
identical,  exist  side  by  side  with  purely  artificial 
boundary  lines  between  them?  The  fact  would 
seem  to  indicate  that  the  separation  was  not  to 
be  permanent. 

Every  great  national  catastrophe  can  be 
traced  back  to  a  prominent  individual  who  em- 
bodies the  evil  spirit  of  his  time.  Louis  XIV. 
made  the  revolution  of  1789,  although  it  was 
not  Louis  XIV.  alone,  but  the  support  which 
he  received  from  the  French  nobility  also,  that 
brought  about  the  catastrophe.  In  like  man- 
ner, Calhoun  was  the  evil  genius  of  the  Ameri- 
can slave-holder.  Instead  of  being  misunder- 
stood, the  evil  he  did  has  not  been  sufficiently 
appreciated.  He  formulated  a  creed  of  self- 
justification  for  the  class  to  which  he  belonged. 
That  soon  came  to  be  a  gospel  of  political  faith. 
His  dictum  that  there  could  be  no  half-way 

197 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

between  African  slavery  and  negro  equality 
seemed  to  be  a  clear  deduction  from  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence,  and  was  devoutly  be- 
lieved in  by  the  Southerners  as  well  as  by  the 
Southern  sympathizers  at  the  North. 

Even  Se ward's  "  masterly  foreign  policy" 
was  infected  with  this  peculiar  notion  of  the 
peculiar  institution.  In  his  correspondence 
with  Minister  Dayton  he  expressed  an  anxiety 
lest  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  should  prove 
disastrous  to  the  cotton  industry,  which  was 
then  the  most  important  of  American  products. 
Subsequent  events  have  proved  this  to  be  a 
delusion. 

What  Calhoun  left  out  of  his  alembic  was 
the  element  of  change.  It  is  only  a  dead  lan- 
guage which  does  not  change:  it  is  only  a  dead 
people,  like  the  Arabs  or  Hindoos,  who  do  not 
change.  The  nineteenth  century  was  a  revo- 
lutionary epoch  which  has  caused  immense 
changes.  Calhoun  perceived  this  as  Metter- 
nich  perceived  it,  but  he  was  mentally  unfitted 
for  adapting  himself  to  it.  The  true  states- 
man rides  upon  the  storm  and  does  not  fear  a 
tidal  wave. 

Garrison  and  Phillips  were  called  fanatics, 
but  the  true  fanatics  lived  south  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line.  The  slaveholders  of  that  time 

198 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

felt  towards  the  rest  of  the  world  very  much 
as  the  Ulstermen  feel  towards  the  rest  of  Ire- 
land, and  Calhoun  was  an  Ulster  Irishman  by 
descent.  They  realized  that  the  sentiment  of 
mankind,  that  the  spirit  of  the  age,  was  against 
them ;  and  it  exasperated  and  embittered  them. 
They  found  themselves  isolated  and  continu- 
ally thrown  back  on  their  own  resources.  A 
problem  which  they  could  not  solve  continually 
stared  them  in  the  face.  This  bound  them  to- 
gether with  the  strongest  of  ties,  and  explains 
why  they  fought  so  desperately  for  an  institu- 
tion which  it  was  their  true  interest  to  be  rid  of. 
They  called  this  sentiment  "  honor,"  but  it  was 
more  like  a  religion.  To  the  very  close  of  the 
war  they  refused  to  accept  compensation  for 
their  slaves.  They  preferred  to  die. 

In  considering  United  States  history  during 
the  middle  of  the  past  century,  this  fanatical 
spirit  must  always  be  taken  into  account,  for 
it  was  a  highly  dangerous  element.  Besides 
this,  we  should  remember  what  Calhoun  neg- 
lected to  consider,  that  the  negro  race  was 
constantly  improving  by  its  association  with 
the  Anglo-Saxon. 

The  American  Indian,  so-called,  remains 
what  he  was  when  the  Pilgrim  fathers  landed. 
Civilization  has  had  no  influence  upon  him,  and 

199 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

presumably  never  will  have.  He  is  a  useless 
commodity,  and  is  disappearing  because  he  is 
useless. 

The  reason  of  this  is  because  the  Indian  does 
not  recognize  the  advantages  of  living  as  white 
men  do.  Neither  has  he  any  well-defined  re- 
ligious feeling,  without  which  it  is  impossible 
to  hold  civilization  together.  Negroes,  on  the 
contrary,  imitate  the  white  man  wherever  they 
come  in  contact  with  him;  and  though  this 
sometimes  makes  them  appear  ridiculous,  it  is 
a  favorable  augury  for  the  future  of  the  race. 
Besides  this,  they  are  capable  of  strong  relig- 
ious feeling,  and  in  the  exemplification  of 
Christian  humility,  and  the  forgiveness  of  in- 
juries, they  are  unequalled.  Sumner  predicted 
that  they  would  finally  inherit  the  tropics,  and 
when  we  recollect  what  the  Anglo-Saxon  was 
like  fourteen  hundred  years  ago,  this  seems 
quite  possible. 

When  we  consider  that  in  addition  to  this 
there  were  in  the  year  1861  thousands  of  slaves 
in  the  United  States  who  were  very  nearly 
white,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  moral  sen- 
timent of  the  Christian  world  should  have 
found  a  subject  for  commiseration  in  Ameri- 
can slavery.  Neither  were  the  fugitive  slaves 
assisted  and  protected  in  the  Northern  States 

200 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

altogether  from  sentimental  motives.  It  was 
quite  as  much  because  they  appealed  to  the 
Northern  conscience  as  human  beings  in  dis- 
tress. The  Southern  planters  honestly  believed 
that  slavery  was  essential  to  their  existence  as 
a  class ;  but  it  was  not  slavery,  it  was  the  negro. 
As  a  f  reedman  they  cannot  control  him  so  well 
as  previously,  but  he  is  much  less  trouble  to 
them.  If  he  does  his  work  badly,  he  can  be 
discharged,  which  is  much  pleasanter  than 
having  him  whipped;  and  if  he  takes  his  own 
leave,  it  is  not  like  losing  a  thousand-dollar 
bond. 

The  conspicuous  mistake  of  Seward's  for- 
eign policy  in  1861  and  1862  was  his  encour- 
agement of  the  belief  that  if  the  slaves  were 
liberated  they  would  leave  the  plantations  and 
take  to  the  woods,  like  their  progenitors  in 
Africa.*  When  they  obtained  their  freedom 
they  remained  quietly  and  peaceably,  for  the 
most  part,  where  they  were.  They  made  no  at- 
tempts to  revenge  themselves  on  their  former 
tyrants,  but  offered  to  work  for  them  at  as 
low  wages  as  they  could  subsist  on. 

The  white  man  is  also  necessary  to  the  black 
man.  That  is  why  President  Lincoln's  at- 

*  Bancroft's  "  Seward,"  II.,  333. 

201 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

tempt  to  colonize  He  a  Vache  with  freedmen 
did  not  succeed.  Five  hundred  African  ne- 
groes would  probably  have  been  able  to  sustain 
themselves  there  by  the  same  methods  which 
they  employ  in  their  native  habitats;  but 
American  negroes  had  long  since  lost  the  sav- 
age instinct  without  acquiring  the  constructive 
faculty  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  As  a  conse- 
quence, they  sickened  and  died  in  large  num- 
bers, and  the  survivors  had  to  be  brought  back 
to  the  United  States. 

A  more  difficult  problem  than  the  recon- 
struction of  the  Southern  States  after  the  close 
of  the  war  has  never  been  considered  by  legis- 
lators, and  the  American  people  were  certainly 
fortunate  in  having  it  solved  in  a  manner  as 
favorable  to  the  conflicting  interests  involved 
as  it  has  been.  It  cannot  be  said  now  that  one 
section  of  the  country  is  more  loyal  than  an- 
other, and  all  sections  feel  the  vital  importance 
of  sustaining  the  national  government,  as  the 
fountain-head  from  which  radiates  all  the 
streams  of  prosperity. 

One  of  the  chief  difficulties  in  dealing  with 
reconstruction  of  the  Southern  States  was  the 
lack  of  any  historical  precedent  which  could  be 
applied  to  them.  All  other  great  revolutions 
in  modern  times  have  taken  place  within  mon- 

202 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

archical  governments,  and  could  only  be  con- 
sidered from  that  stand-point.  Moreover,  the 
various  rebellions  against  government  in 
France  and  England  and  Germany  have  had 
no  localization,  like  the  insurrection  of  the  slave 
States,  and  after  their  suppression  there  was 
no  danger  that  the  rebellious  elements  would 
obtain  possession  of  the  government  by  peace- 
able means.  Now  a  lawyer  without  a  prece- 
dent is  a  lawyer  without  a  case,  and  a  large 
proportion  of  our  legislators  at  Washington — 
especially  Fessenden  and  Trumbull — found 
themselves  nonplussed  by  the  fact  that  recon- 
struction to  be  dealt  in  an  effective  manner 
would  have  to  be  treated  on  purely  a  priori  or 
revolutionary  ground;  and  that  is  ground 
which  no  lawyer  willingly  treads  on.  It  was 
a  case  wholly  outside  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  and  without  a  parallel  in  his- 
tory. 

No  wonder  that  President  Lincoln  declared, 
in  his  last  speech  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  that 
he  had  a  more  difficult  task  before  him  than 
Washington  had,  and  how  he  could  accomplish 
it  without  divine  assistance  he  did  not  know.  A 
man  of  bolder  nature  might  not  have  felt  like 
this,  and  might  have  afterwards  fallen  in  the 
same  pitfall  that  Seward  did;  but  it  has  been 

203 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

the  common  opinion,  especially  at  the  South, 
that  if  Lincoln  had  lived  reconstruction  would 
have  been  accomplished  in  a  much  more  satis- 
factory manner  than  in  the  way  that  it  hap- 
pened to  be.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  it 
would  have  been  accomplished  more  readily, 
with  less  friction  and  without  the  incipient 
afterbirth  of  rebellion  known  as  the  Ku-Klux 
organization;  but  it  is  also  doubtful  whether 
the  result  would  have  been  essentially  different. 
Seward  and  Johnson  always  insisted  that  in 
the  course  they  pursued  in  regard  to  recon- 
struction they  were  simply  following  the  path 
which  had  been  pointed  out  by  Lincoln.  This 
was  purely  political  clap -trap.  It  is  evident 
from  Lincoln's  speech  at  Springfield,  as  well 
as  from  his  last  address  from  the  steps  of  the 
White  House,  in  which  he  suggested  universal 
amnesty  united  with  universal  suffrage,*  that 
he  had  not  yet  arrived  at  any  decided  opinion 
on  this  momentous  question.  It  would  not 
have  been  like  Lincoln  to  act  otherwise.  More- 
over, Congress  would  have  to  be  considered, 
and  the  subject  was  eminently  a  legislative  one. 
During  serious  civil  disturbances  the  Presi- 
dent, as  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  be- 

*Or,   according   to   another   account,   general   amnesty  with 
qualified  negro  suffrage.     See  Pierce's  "  Sumner,"  vol.  iv. 

204 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

comes  practically  a  dictator,  and  Lincoln  was 
fully  justified  in  arranging  a  temporary  recon- 
struction for  those  States  which  had  already 
submitted  to  the  Federal  authority;  but  after 
the  war  had  ended,  these  could  only  be  consid- 
ered as  temporary  structures,  which  were  to  be 
replaced  by  the  more  substantial  and  enduring 
forms  of  legislative  enactment.  It  was  not 
according  to  American  institutions  that  recon- 
struction should  be  dictated  by  a  single  person, 
although  Seward  would  evidently  have  liked 
to  do  this. 

The  charm  of  Lincoln's  policy  lay  in  his 
conciliatory  methods  and  readiness  to  adapt 
himself  to  fresh  situations.  There  never  has 
been  a  time  in  the  United  States  when  public 
opinion  ruled  as  it  did  during  his  administra- 
tion. Such  a  President  would  not  be  likely 
to  enter  into  a  conflict  with  his  own  party. 

Seward  had  already  shown  his  hand  in 
TrumbulFs  hasty  and  imprudent  attempt  to 
admit  Louisiana  to  a  representation  in  Con- 
gress on  the  basis  of  one-tenth  of  its  voting 
population.  That  a  majority  of  the  Repub- 
lican members  of  the  Senate  supported  the  bill 
shows  how  strong  the  current  was  against 
negro  suffrage  at  that  time;  but  its  passage 
was  prevented  by  Sumner  in  a  herculean  effort 

205 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

of  speech-making  which  has  no  parallel  for 
copiousness  and  endurance. 

It  is  difficult  to  account  for  Seward's  ter- 
giversations during  the  war,  except  on  the 
ground  of  animosity  towards  his  former  asso- 
ciates. Even  those  who  supported  his  nomi- 
nation at  Chicago  fared  no  better  than  the  rest. 
When  we  consider  his  proposition  to  make  war 
on  France  and  Spain  in  order  to  reunite  the 
two  sections  of  the  country, — an  old  Machia- 
vellian trick, — we  can  hardly  blame  the  best 
men  in  the  Senate  for  considering  him  a  dan- 
gerous person  in  his  position.  Whether  An- 
drew Johnson's  sudden  change  of  attitude  in 
the  spring  of  1865  was  due  to  Seward's  influ- 
ence can  never  be  decided  with  absolute  cer- 
tainty; but  it  coincided  exactly  with  Seward's 
recovery  from  the  injuries  he  sustained  by  the 
fall  from  his  carriage.  Their  plan  of  recon- 
struction might  simply  be  called  unconditional 
surrender.  As  Wendell  Phillips  said,  the 
North  could  only  be  justified  for  conquering 
the  South  on  condition  that  it  carried  its  ideas 
into  the  South,  and  so  made  the  whole  country 
a  homogeneous  union. 

On  May  31,  1865,  George  L.  Stearns  and 
other  Boston  merchants  called  a  meeting  in 
Faneuil  Hall  to  discuss  the  question  of  South- 

206 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

ern  reconstruction.  The  principal  speaker  on 
that  occasion  was  Professor  Theophilus  Par- 
sons, of  the  Harvard  Law  School.  In  an  able 
address,  which  even  reminded  his  hearers  of 
Webster's  oration  in  the  same  hall,  he  made  the 
following  argument: 

"  Let  us  now,  fellow-citizens,  look  at  the  dangers 
which  attend  an  immediate  restoration  of  the  rebel 
States  to  the  exercise  of  full  State  authority.  Slavery 
is  the  law  of  every  rebel  State.  In  some  of  these 
States  free  persons  of  color  are  not  permitted  to  re- 
side ;  in  none  of  them  have  they  the  right  to  testify  in 
court,  or  to  be  educated ;  in  few  of  them  to  hold  land, 
and  in  all  of  them  they  are  totally  disfranchised. 
But,  far  beyond  the  letter  of  the  law,  the  spirit  of  the 
people  and  the  habits  of  generations  are  such  as  to 
insure  the  permanence  of  that  state  of  things,  in  sub- 
stance. If  slavery  should  be  abolished  in  form,  their 
spirit  and  habits,  their  pride  and  passions,  will  lead 
them  to  uphold  their  oligarchal  system,  built  upon  a 
debased  colored  population,  and  intrenched  behind 
State  institutions,  over  which  the  nation  cannot  pass 
in  peace.  Their  personal  relation  with  the  colored 
people  as  masters  over  slaves  being  changed  in  law, 
they  will  look  upon  them  in  a  new  light,  as  a  class  to 
be  feared,  and  as  the  cause  of  their  defeat  and  humili- 
ation. They  will  not  tax  themselves  to  give  to  the 
f  reedmen  an  education.  They  will  not  permit  the  con- 
tinuance within  their  States  of  philanthropic  agencies 

207 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

for  colored  people,  from  the  free  States.  They  will 
not  encourage  Northern  immigration,  with  systems 
of  small  freeholds  and  free  labor;  nor  will  capital 
and  labor  go  there  from  the  free  States  under  present 
auspices.  Returning  to  their  old  arts  of  politics, 
which  they  are  fond  of,  and  in  which  long  practice 
has  made  them  expert,  they  will  seek  to  repudiate  a 
debt  incurred  for  the  suppression  of  their  revolt; 
nor  can  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  danger  of  political 
combinations,  to  be  ruled  by  this  oligarchy  and  to  do 
its  work.  It  is  useless  to  suggest  or  conjecture  meth- 
ods and  means;  the  spirit  and  motive  will  take  such 
forms  as  occasions  may  require." 

And  again  he  said: 

"  We  cannot  require  the  rebel  States,  if  we  treat 
them  as  States,  to  adopt  a  system,  for  the  sole  reason 
that  we  think  it  right.  Of  that,  each  State,  acting  as 
a  State,  must  be  the  judge.  But  in  the  situation  in 
which  the  rebel  States  now  are,  the  nation  can  insist 
upon  what  is  necessary  to  public  safety  and  peace. 
And  we  declare  it  to  be  our  belief  that  if  the  nation 
admits  a  rebel  State  to  its  full  functions  with  a  con- 
stitution which  does  not  secure  to  the  freedmen  the 
right  of  suffrage  in  such  manner  as  to  be  impartial 
and  not  based  in  principle  upon  color,  and  as  to  be 
reasonably  attainable  by  intelligence  and  character, 
and  which  does  not  place  in  their  hands  a  substantial 
power  to  defend  their  rights  as  citizens  at  the  ballot- 
box,  with  the  right  to  be  educated,  to  acquire  home- 

208 


UN; 

OUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

steads  and  to  testify  in  courts,  the  nation  will  be 
recreant  to  its  duty  to  itself  and  to  them,  and  will 
incur  and  deserve  to  incur  danger  and  reproach  pro- 
portioned to  the  magnitude  of  its  responsibility." 

This  address  with  accompanying  resolutions 
was  circulated  broadcast  over  the  loyal  States, 
and  its  effect  was  all  the  more  potent  from  the 
fact  that  Professor  Parsons  had  never  been 
identified  with  the  anti-slavery  movement,  and 
was  a  distinguished  legal  authority  on  practical 
affairs. 

Sumner,  Chase,  Wade,  and  Greeley  had 
already  given  an  opinion  in  favor  of  universal 
suffrage  for  the  negro,  without  educational 
conditions,  requiring  only  that  he  should  have 
a  local  habitation.  They  supported  this,  first, 
on  the  ground  of  natural  right;  secondly,  as 
a  political  necessity,  and,  thirdly,  because  an 
educational  suffrage  would  require  from  ten 
to  fifteen  years  to  develop  it  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions. 

In  his  valedictory  address  of  January  5, 
1865,  Governor  Andrew  elaborated  a  plan  of 
reconstruction  which  resembled  Professor  Par- 
sons's  statement,  with  some  additional  details 
of  his  own.  He  advised  maintaining  the  direct 
authority  of  the  President  over  the  lately 
rebellious  States  until  the  Southern  people 
14  209 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

should  of  their  own  accord  repeal  the  ordi- 
nances of  secession,  repudiate  the  Confederate 
debt,  and  enact  a  suffrage  law  which  would 
place  whites  and  blacks  on  an  equality,  with  a 
reading  and  writing  limitation;  providing, 
however,  that  no  persons  already  possessing 
the  right  to  vote  should  be  disqualified. 

This  is  the  reconstruction  of  the  future;  but 
at  that  time  it  involved  two  serious  dangers. 
In  the  first  place  it  was  questionable  whether 
a  policy  which  might  be  protracted  through 
three  or  more  presidential  terms  could  be  ade- 
quately sustained  during  such  a  length  of  time. 
A  new  generation  would  be  growing  up  in  the 
loyal  States,  who  might  misunderstand  the 
character  of  the  war  period,  and  there  would 
most  likely  be  a  clamor  for  a  final  settlement 
of  the  Southern  question  at  each  presidential 
election;  in  the  second  place,  according  to  this 
plan,  the  Southern  whites  might  precipitate 
reconstruction,  and  afterwards  prevent  the 
negroes  from  voting  by  physical  violence,  as 
actually  happened  twelve  years  later. 

Sumner  perceived  these  objections  and  ar- 
gued the  case  with  Andrew,  so  that  it  produced 
an  estrangement  between  them,  which  has  com- 
monly been  attributed  to  more  personal  rea- 
sons. 

210 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

Andrew  Johnson  was  properly  responsible 
for  the  Ku-Klux  outrages, — a  heavy  weight  of 
sin  for  a  man  to  take  out  of  this  world, — but 
in  one  respect  his  policy  was  an  advantage.  It 
forced  the  Northern  voters,  as  well  as  their 
representatives,  to  realize  the  danger  that 
might  result  at  that  time  from  a  change  of 
administration. 

The  Republican  party  had  accepted  the  re- 
sponsibilify  of  maintaining  the  Union,  and  this 
included  a  solidification  of  the  disorganized 
elements  after  secession  had  been  suppressed. 
It  was  the  first  truly  national  party  since  the 
disbandment  of  the  Federalists,  and  its  inter- 
ests were  almost  identical  with  those  of  the 
nation.  The  founders  of  the  national  Consti- 
tution never  imagined  that  the  election  of  a 
United  States  President  might  be  decided  by 
the  Pope  at  Rome;  but  if  the  Pope  has  never 
done  this,  it  is  not  because  he  lacked  the  power 
to  do  it.  The  large  foreign  or  semi-foreign 
population,  irresponsible  and  unpatriotic,  in 
a  State  whose  material  interests  are  pretty 
evenly  divided  between  free-trade  and  protec- 
tion, is  always  a  source  of  danger  to  the  re- 
public. The  votes  of  Irish,  German,  and  other 
persons  of  foreign  birth  may  be  cast  on  the 
right  side  or  on  the  wrong,  but  they  constitute 


211 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

an  unsettled  and  dubious  element,  which  can 
only  be  secured  by  demagogic  methods. 

It  has  rarely  happened  that  a  great  and 
especially  a  sanguinary  revolution  has  taken 
place  without  being  succeeded  by  a  counter- 
revolution. Even  the  overthrow  of  imperial- 
ism in  France  narrowly  missed  this  result,  and 
it  was  only  the  sudden  death  of  Louis  Napo- 
leon that  prevented  a  second  restoration.  At 
the  close  of  the  war,  the  Southern  States  were 
completely  exhausted,  and  the  Northern  States 
were  nearly  so ;  but  the  recuperative  power  of 
nature  is  so  great  that  a  nation  can  go  to  war 
one  year  in  five  without  feeling  any  serious 
loss  of  life  or  property.  In  1869  Seymour  car- 
ried the  State  of  New  York  against  Grant, 
and  it  was  said  at  the  time  that,  if  the  Southern 
States  had  been  reconstructed  according  to 
Johnson  and  Seward's  plan,  Seymour  would 
have  been  elected.  What  would  have  been  the 
consequences  of  this  it  is  impossible  to  esti- 
mate; but  it  would  have  required  a  different 
President  from  Pierce  or  Buchanan  to  have 
held  a  straight  course  between  the  contending 
elements  so  as  to  avoid  bringing  on  a  conflict. 
The  responsibility  that  rested  on  the  Repub- 
lican party  was  a  very  serious  one. 

The  net  result  of  a  counter-revolution  might 

212 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

have  been  what  has  been  called  Mexicanizing 
the  government.  We  came  nearer  to  this  in 
the  disputed  election  of  1876  than  is  gener- 
ally supposed.  Three  hundred  thousand  armed 
men  offered  their  services  to  Samuel  J.  Tilden, 
and  expressed  their  readiness  to  place  him  in 
the  White  House  at  $ny  cost;  but  Tilden  said, 
"  No;  I  will  not  have  one  drop  of  American 
blood  shed  to  make  me  President," — a  declara- 
tion which  will  always  be  remembered  to  his 
honor.  Occasional  revolutions  are  beneficial,— 
even  those  in  France  have  indicated  a  distinct 
advance  on  each  occasion ;  but  a  chronic  condi- 
tion of  revolution,  like  that  of  Mexico  for 
forty  years  previous  to  the  French  occupation, 
is  enough  to  stunt  and  deform  all  national 
growth.  In  fact,  the  French  occupation  ap- 
pears to  have  produced  good  results  in  teach- 
ing the  Mexicans  that  there  was  an  outside 
world  to  be  considered,  and  from  which  there 
was  also  somewhat  to  be  learned. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  reason  with  those 
who  condemn  the  acts  of  Congress  on  re- 
construction from  partisan  motives;  but  for 
others  who  now  consider  negro  suffrage  a  per- 
manent failure,  it  would  be  well  to  study  the 
evolution  of  this  subject  through  the  Congres- 
sional debates  from  February,  1865,  until  the 

213 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

winter  of  1869.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that  no 
other  measure  has  ever  been  so  thoroughly  dis- 
cussed, debated,  sifted,  and  examined  from 
every  point  of  the  compass.  The  open  debates 
upon  it  in  the  Senate  and  House  only  repre- 
sented a  portion  of  the  consideration  that  was 
given  to  it.  Many  who  had  opposed  it  strenu- 
ously at  first  afterwards  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  was  the  only  possible  remedy  or  resource 
for  existing  conditions.  Sumner,  who  had 
always  been  the  leader  in  the  movement,  was 
greatly  respected  for  his  knowledge  in  public 
affairs  and  purity  of  motive,  but  he  did  not 
possess  the  influence  of  a  party  leader  like 
Seward  or  Clay,  and  he  would  not  have  made 
use  of  personal  influence  if  he  had  possessed  it. 
The  Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Consti- 
tution was  passed  in  the  last  week  of  Decem- 
ber, 1866.  It  resembled  Governor  Andrew's 
plan  without  the  educational  qualification,  and 
it  offered  the  recently  seceding  States  a  repre- 
sentation in  Congress  according  to  the  number 
of  their  white  population,  or  a  full  representa- 
tion provided  they  conferred  suffrage  on  the 
negro  race.  This  seemed  to  be  fair,  and  it  was 
hoped  that  the  Southerners  would  think  best 
to  adopt  negro  suffrage,  by  which  they  would 

obtain  a  much  larger  representation  than  they 

214 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

possessed  before  the  war.  The  Southerners, 
however,  did  not  look  at  it  in  that  light.  They 
preferred  to  wait  and  take  their  chances  of  a 
more  favorable  solution.  Not  a  single  State 
accepted  the  proposal,  and  the  Fourteenth 
Amendment  became  practically  a  dead  letter. 

After  waiting  a  year  to  be  satisfied  of  this, 
Congress  took  up  its  laborious  task  to  be  begun 
again.  There  was  more  counselling,  more  dis- 
cussing, and  more  debating.  Finally,  only  a 
few  weeks  before  President  Grant's  inaugura- 
tion, the  Fifteenth  Amendment  was  passed, 
enacting  universal  suffrage  without  distinction 
of  race  or  color.  Sumner  had  won  his  triumph, 
—perhaps  the  greatest  of  his  life. 

It  has  frequently  been  claimed  by  Sumner's 
opponents  in  his  own  party  that  this  result  was 
chiefly  due  to  the  perverse  and  eccentric  course 
of  Johnson  and  Seward.  If  the  Amendment 
had  been  passed  by  Congress  two  years  earlier, 
there  might  be  some  justification  for  such  a 
statement;  but  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  John- 
son could  have  affected  the  action  of  Congress 
just  as  he  was  going  out  of  office.  If  Con- 
gress was  influenced  by  any  such  consideration, 
it  is  more  likely  to  have  been  owing  to  .General 
Grant's  reticence.  As  late  as  the  summer  of 
1867  no  person  in  Washington  could  say  defi- 

215 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

nitely  what  Grant's  politics  were.  He  voted 
for  Buchanan  in  1856,  and  no  one  knew 
whether  or  how  much  his  mind  had  changed. 
He  was  thrust  upon  the  Republican  party  as 
a  presidential  candidate  by  the  grand  army 
of  veterans,  supported  by  the  popular  weak- 
ness for  military  renown;  but  men  like  Sum- 
ner,  Whitelaw  Reid,  and  Trumbull  did  not  like 
this,  and  predicted  unfortunate  consequences 
from  it.  His  reticence  indicated  great  reserved 
force,  but  it  was  much  to  be  feared  that  this 
force  would  take  an  eccentric  direction.  It 
was  one  of  the  dangers  which  had  to  be  pro- 
vided for. 

The  Fifteenth  Amendment  had  this  essen- 
tial merit :  it  was  in  accordance  with  professed 
American  principles.  This  was  Sumner's  main 
line  of  argument.  If  those  principles  are  cor- 
rect, negro  suffrage  must  be  right  and  just. 
The  Amendment,  however,  was  not  adopted  on 
this  account  so  much  as  for  reasons  of  expe- 
diency. It  was  the  only  method  by  which  a 
loyal  party  could  be  built  up  in  the  Southern 
States. 

Negro  suffrage  proved  a  failure,  as  uni- 
versal suffrage  always  will  prove  a  failure 
wherever  the  illiterate  outnumber  the  edu- 
cated. It  was  more  of  a  failure  than  Irish 

216 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

and  German  suffrage  in  New  York  City,  only 
because  it  existed  on  a  larger  scale.  The  ad- 
ministration of  Governor  Moses  in  South  Car- 
olina was  not  so  bad  on  the  whole  as  that  of 
Tweed  and  his  Tammany  associates,  and  hardly 
more  corrupt  than  the  national  administration 
at  the  same  time.  A  great  wave  of  corruption 
and  public  demoralization  swept  over  the  coun- 
try at  that  period, — an  aftermath  of  the  Civil 
War.  It  was  the  time  of  the  Erie  frauds,  the 
Credit  Mobilier  scandals,  and  Elaine's  "  Mulli- 
gan letters."  Burglars  were  employed  to  steal 
documents  that  compromised  the  highest  gov- 
ernment officials.  It  is  true  that  Grant  made 
little  effort  to  repress  this;  but  it  is  doubtful  if 
the  evil  could  have  been  repressed  altogether. 
The  negroes  are  an  imitative  race,  and  while 
such  conditions  prevailed  at  Washington, 
what  could  be  expected  of  Governor  Moses 
and  his  recently  liberated  supporters  in 
Charleston? 

The  negro  franchise  does  not  appear  to  have 
done  much  harm  except  in  South  Carolina, 
Louisiana,  and  Florida.  In  North  Carolina, 
where  the  negroes  are  a  good  deal  mixed  with 
a  population  of  white  laborers,  it  appears  to 
have  worked  very  well.  In  Ohio,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  Massachusetts  the  colored  popula- 

217 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

tion  has  proved  an  element  of  stability.  The 
negroes  are  not  socialistic, — not  given  to  strikes 
or  other  organized  attempts  to  interfere  with 
the  natural  process  of  supply  and  demand. 
They  are  all  Protestants,  and  do  not  com- 
plicate politics  by  the  introduction  of  religious 
questions.  It  is  equally  true  of  negroes  and 
Indians  that  where  they  come  in  contact  with 
an  orderly,  law-abiding  class  of  whites,  they 
are  also  orderly  and  law-abiding ;  especially  if 
the  whites  are  more  numerous  than  they  are; 
but  where  the  contrary  happens,  they  become 
reckless  and  criminally  inclined.  In  Philadel- 
phia, where  there  is  a  large  negro  population, 
there  is  much  less  disorder  among  them  than 
among  persons  of  foreign  descent. 

The  brief  supremacy  of  the  African  race, 
from  1870  to  1877,  was  like  a  seven-years'  war 
to  the  Southern  whites ;  for  they  not  only  suf- 
fered in  their  pride,  but  in  other  respects; 
but  it  served  to  give  the  negroes  a  foothold  in 
the  struggle  for  existence  and  self -improve- 
ment. It  enabled  them  to  obtain  land  and  to 
establish  the  rudiments  of  an  educational  sys- 
tem, and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  they  would  not 
have  obtained  these  without  it. 

Sumner's  championship  of  negro  equality 

has  been  badly  misunderstood.    He  was  not  a 

218 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

socialist  or  a  communist,  nor  did  he  believe  in 
absolute  equality  among  white  persons.  What 
he  wished  to  accomplish  in  this  respect  was  to 
have  the  African  race  treated  with  fairness 
and  decency.  He  met  Alexander  Dumas  at  a 
dinner-party  in  Paris,  and  he  did  not  see  any 
good  reason  why  Frederick  Douglass  should 
be  excluded  from  similar  entertainments  in 
America.  He  advocated  this  cause  on  general 
principles  as  the  only  practical  method  of  ac- 
complishing his  object.  His  Civil  Rights  Bill, 
which  did  not  become  a  law  until  after  his 
death,  served  its  purpose  for  the  time  being; 
and,  although  it  was  afterwards  pronounced 
unconstitutional  by  Chief-Justice  Waite,  it  is 
by  no  means  certain  that  it  was  so.  Caleb 
Cushing,  who  had  a  superior  reputation  as  a 
legal  authority  to  Waite,  held  the  opposite 
opinion,  and  there  is  no  good  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  he  was  prejudiced.*  The  Civil 
Rights  Bill  helped  to  break  down  old  barriers 
and  greatly  ameliorated  the  public  status  of 
the  black  man. 

Slavery  having  been  abolished,  new  and  ade- 
quate relations  between  white  men  and  negroes 
at  the  South  have  not  yet  been  established,  and 

*  Pierce's  "  Sumner,"  iv.,  582. 
219 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

we  live  in  a  period  of  confusion.  This,  how- 
ever, cannot  continue  indefinitely,  and  there 
are  hopeful  indications  for  the  future.  Indi- 
viduals of  the  African  race  have  been  highly 
educated,  and  are  diligently  transmitting  their 
knowledge  to  the  masses  of  their  own  people. 
They  have  their  own  doctors,  lawyers,  and 
clergymen.  They  are  represented  in  the  legis- 
latures of  the  Northern  States,  and  the  time  is 
coming  when  they  cannot  be  excluded  from 
those  in  the  Southern  States.  They  own  thou- 
sands of  square  miles  of  land,  and,  although 
the  amount  is  small  compared  with  that  which 
the  whites  possess,  it  is  fully  equal  to  the  pro- 
portion of  land  owned  by  the  farmers  in  Eng- 
land. In  1903  the  taxable  property  owned  by 
the  colored  people  in  the  State  of  Georgia 
alone  was  increased  by  more  than  a  million  dol- 
lars. If  the  wages  they  are  paid  are  less  than 
those  of  the  laboring  men  in  the  North,  it  is 
also  less  expensive  to  live  in  a  warm  climate. 
They  are  making  an  effort  to  obtain  education 
under  disadvantages  that  might  well  discour- 
age the  most  energetic  and  persevering  Anglo- 
Saxons.  The  colored  students  have  done  what 
has  not  been  done  since  the  days  of  Abelard; 
they  have  built  their  own  academies  with  bricks 
of  their  own  making  and  with  timber  of  their 

220 


SOUTHERN  RECONSTRUCTION 

own  hewing.  Hundreds  of  applicants  are 
turned  away  from  Tuskegee  College  every 
year  from  lack  of  accommodation;  although 
new  buildings  are  constantly  being  added.  If 
the  criminal  statistics  of  the  negro  race  in  the 
South  are  somewhat  startling,  it  should  be  re- 
membered that  they  live  in  the  most  lawless 
portion  of  the  civilized  world,  without  any- 
thing that  can  properly  be  called  a  police  force, 
either  to  protect  the  virtuous  or  to  restrain  the 
vicious. 

The  three  Southern  colleges,  at  Hampton, 
Va.,  Berea,  Ky.,  and  Tuskegee,  Ala.,  are  as 
successful  as  any  educational  establishments  in 
the  United  States,  and  are  perhaps  accomplish- 
ing more  for  the  future  good  of  this  country 
than  any  others.  The  colored  people  have 
found  a  true  statesman  in  Booker  T.  Wash- 
ington, who  like  a  modern  Moses  has  pointed 
out  a  path  to  them  through  the  Red  Sea  of 
their  many  difficulties.  He  counsels  them  not 
to  trouble  themselves  about  politics,  or  their 
social  status,  or  the  higher  branches  of  educa- 
tion; but  to  lay  a  solid  foundation  in  the  old 
Anglo-Saxon  virtues  of  industry,  thrift,  econ- 
omy, and  sobriety — to  make  themselves  skilled 
workmen,  to  become  good  housekeepers,  and 
to  accumulate  property.  This  is  the  true  basis 

221 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

of  civilization,  and  it  would  be  well  if  there 
were  more  such  instructors  in  the  Northern 
States  as  well  as  the  Southern.  It  is  far  better 
to  learn  a  few  things  well  and  thoroughly  than 
to  skim  the  surface  of  all  the  branches  of 
knowledge  in  the  way  that  is  now  being  done 
in  American  schools  and  colleges.  If  the  col- 
ored people  hearken  to  their  Moses,  and  profit 
by  his  example  and  guidance,  it  may  be  safely 
predicted  that  they  will  in  due  course  reach 
their  promised  land,  not  in  the  He  a  Vache  or 
any  distant  continent,  but  in  the  very  region 
about  them,  where  peace  and  prosperity  await 
them  as  honest  and  well-behaved  citizens. 

The  sooner  the  Southern  planters  realize 
that  the  true  interest  of  the  negro  is  also  their 
interest,  and  that  when  they  cheat  him  of  his 
lawful  wages  they  are  also  cheating  themselves, 
the  sooner  will  new  and  satisfactory  relations 
between  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  African 
races  be  established.  At  the  present  time  the 
essential  need  of  the  colored  people  is  a  simple 
common-school  system,  in  which  they  can  be 
taught  to  read,  write,  and  cipher,  and  a  more 
extended  development  of  the  industrial  system 
of  Tuskegee  College.  The  greatest  need  for 
all  parties  concerned  is  a  more  efficient  police 
and  judiciary  system. 

222 


THE    ETHICS    OF   WAR 

I  WAS  once  acquainted  with  a  mercantile 
gentleman,  in  most  respects  a  sensible  and 
practical  person,  who  never  went  to  the  polls 
on  election  day  to  vote,  because,  as  he  affirmed, 
governments  supported  war,  and  for  one  man 
to  kill  another  in  battle  was  just  as  wicked 
as  Cain's  murder  of  Abel.  If  any  one  at- 
tempted to  reason  with  him  on  the  subject  and 
show  him  that  governments  maintained  armed 
forces  in  order  to  preserve  the  peace,  to  pre- 
vent anarchy,  and  to  protect  him  and  his  coun- 
trymen in  their  daily  pursuits,  he  would  smile 
with  as  much  incredulity  as  Emerson  may  have 
done  when  informed  that  the  day  of  judg- 
ment was  close  at  hand.  In  important  affairs, 
he  would  say,  people  always  consider  their  own 
interest;  and  if  it  were  not  for  the  interest  of 
Beaconsfield  and  Gladstone  to  make  war  they 
would  not  have  done  it, — referring  to  the 
Afghan  and  the  Egyptian  campaigns. 

This  is  only  an  extreme  example  of  an 
opinion  which  prevails  largely  at  the  present 
time,  especially  in  England  and  the  United 
States,  and  more  especially  among  the  social- 

223 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

ists  of  all  countries.  It  has  even  taken  the 
form  of  an  aggressive  movement  like  the  tem- 
perance agitation.  You  will  hear  it  said  with 
some  asperity,  and  perhaps  by  a  young  lady  of 
fashion,  that  wars  are  unnecessary  and  might 
easily  be  avoided;  that  they  result  from  the 
intrigues  of  cabinets  and  ministries ;  that  mili- 
tary preparation  naturally  tends  to  produce 
them;  and  that  the  soldiers  who  fight  in  them 
and  die  on  the  battle-field  are  the  last  persons 
to  derive  a  benefit  from  their  results.  Even 
General  Sherman,  sincere  and  sagacious  as  he 
was,  believed  for  many  years  that  our  Civil 
War  was  occasioned  by  intriguing  politicians 
in  both  sections  of  the  country. 

There  is  a  kind  of  truth  in  all  this ;  but  it  is 
less  than  a  half  truth,  and  could  never  satisfy 
those  who  seek  for  the  causes  of  human  actions 
and  volitions. 

In  the  phosphate  beds  of  South  Carolina 
are  found  fossil  sharks'  teeth  larger  than  the 
teeth  of  a  mowing-machine;  and  naturalists 
have  estimated  that  the  monsters  to  which 
they  belonged  could  not  have  been  less  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  length,  and 
must  have  required  at  least  four  hundred 
pounds  of  fish  for  their  daily  consumption. 
Why  did  nature  create  such  engines  of  de- 

224 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAR 

struction?  There  must  have  been  a  reason 
for  it. 

The  flying-fish  feeds  on  smaller  fishes,  and 
these  prey  on  the  still  more  diminutive  marine 
life;  the  dolphin  eats  the  flying-fish,  and  the 
shark  eats  the  dolphin.  From  the  most  primi- 
tive forms  of  animal  existence  up  to  the  lion 
and  tiger  there  is  an  unbroken  chain  of  de- 
struction; and  thus  does  God  feed  His  crea- 
tures on  one  another.  Perhaps  the  best  ex- 
planation— certainly  the  most  rational  one — 
is  that  only  in  this  way  could  the  balance  be 
preserved  between  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdoms  and  the  final  evolution  of  harmoni- 
ous conditions  be  attained  on  earth.  We  may 
readily  suppose  that  the  cannibal  habits  of  the 
shark  tribe  were  first  induced  by  the  lack  of 
other  forms  of  nourishment ;  so  it  is  with  men 
—in  the  South  Sea  islands. 

When  a  farmer  puts  his  cows  to  pasture 
he  considers  whether  the  grass  is  sufficiently 
grown  to  sustain  its  roots  for  the  ensuing  sea- 
son. If  he  pastures  too  many  cows  in  the  same 
field,  not  only  do  the  animals  suffer,  but  the 
turf  also  will  be  impaired  for  another  year.  If 
graminivorous  animals  were  permitted  to  mul- 
tiply without  restriction,  they  would  soon  ex- 
haust the  vegetation  which  they  live  on.  If 

15  225 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

the  smaller  birds  did  not  eat  insects,  the  insects 
would  destroy  the  foliage  of  our  trees;  and 
if  the  insectivorous  birds  were  not  in  their  turn 
devoured  by  hawks  and  owls,  they  would  exter- 
minate the  insects.  It  may  be  suggested  that 
nature  might  have  avoided  all  this  by  limiting 
the  reproductive  power  in  both  plants  and  ani- 
mals, but  the  reproductive  power  is  so  closely 
connected  with  nervous  volition  that  it  is  only 
by  the  exercise  of  reason  that  it  can  be  con- 
trolled; yet  nature  shows  a  kind  of  foresight 
in  this  direction  also,  for  animals  that  have 
slight  means  of  protection,  like  rabbits,  multi- 
ply rapidly,  while  the  white-headed  eagle  lays 
only  two  eggs  in  a  season.  The  reproduction 
of  plants  could  only  be  regulated  by  human 
agency.  Out  of  a  thousand  seeds,  some  hun- 
dreds might  sprout  or  only  a  few. 

The  advent  of  men  on  earth  introduced  rea- 
son and  order.  Reason  was  the  divine  bequest, 
by  right  of  which  he  took  possession  of  this 
mundane  sphere.  The  primitive  man  was  and 
is  more  of  an  animal  than  a  rational  being; 
the  French  revolution  proved  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  men  in  the  most  civilized  communi- 
ties are  still  in  a  barbarous  state,  and  that  they 
only  conform  to  the  usages  of  society  from 
fear  of  the  law;  yet  in  the  earliest  times  man 

226 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAR 

showed  his  evident  intention  of  ruling  the 
earth.  He  destroyed  beasts  of  prey  and  do- 
mesticated those  animals  which  would  be  use- 
ful to  him.  Horses  and  dogs  were  domesti- 
cated long  before  the  earliest  records.  The 
reproduction  of  plants  was  regulated,  grain 
was  sown,  and  weeds  rooted  up.  The  repro- 
duction of  animals  was  regulated  by  drown- 
ing puppies  and  slaughtering  the  young  of 
sheep  and  cattle.  That  this  was  right  and 
good,  few  besides  the  vegetarians  will  be  likely 
to  question,  for  through  the  killing  of  some 
others  were  given  an  opportunity  to  live. 

Man  found  more  difficulty  in  dealing  with 
his  brother  man;  and  this  difficulty  still  con- 
tinues. In  his  dual  nature  of  an  animal  and 
a  rational  being  he  was  sometimes  one  and 
sometimes  the  other,  and  when  he  persisted  in 
being  an  animal  he  had  to  be  treated  like  an 
animal,  and  even  sometimes  to  be  killed  like 
an  animal.  Such  was  the  origin  of  capital 
punishment,  and  such  is  its  justification. 

It  has  been  said  that  tragedy  results  from  a 
higher  intelligence  being  placed  in  the  power 
of  a  lower  one.  This,  somewhat  indirectly, 
is  the  origin  of  war,  which  might  be  called 
tragedy  on  the  grand  scale.  In  order  to  pun- 
ish offenders  against  the  general  peace  in  a 

227 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

small  community,  some  kind  of  organization 
was  necessary.  If  coercion  is  inseparable 
from  government  now,  it  must  have  been 
of  continual  necessity  in  primitive  society. 
Doubts  must  sometime  have  arisen  as  to  the 
guilt  of  the  delinquent  and  the  justice  of  the 
punishment,  and  when  this  happened  in  the 
case  of  a  conspicuous  personage,  the  commu- 
nity would  be  likely  to  be  divided  by  a  differ- 
ence of  opinion  for  and  against,  and  a  kind 
of  a  civil  war  would  take  its  rise.  In  all  the 
important  civil  wars  of  history  the  right  and 
wrong  of  either  side  has  been  pretty  evenly 
balanced, — like  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  which 
originated  in  the  garden  of  a  London  law- 
court. 

As  soon  as  communities  improved  in  civili- 
zation, they  must  also  have  increased  in  size 
and  wealth.  A  military  organization  became 
necessary  in  order  to  protect  them  from  the 
rapacity  of  their  more  barbarous  neighbors; 
for  the  conquest  of  a  barbarous  people  was  a 
small  advantage  to  those  who  were  more  civil- 
ized, and  the  reverse  of  this  is  equally  true. 
That  military  organization  frequently  resulted 
in  unjust  wars  and  in  the  oppression  of  peace- 
able communities  did  not  prevent  it  from 
being  any  the  less  necessary  and  indispensable. 


THE  ETHICS  or  WAE 

Moreover,  the  jealousy  and  suspicion  between 
different  tribes  and  races  prevented  the  ex- 
tension of  civilization  by  any  other  means 
except  foreign  conquest.  It  was  from  the 
conquest  of  the  Hebrews  by  the  Egyptians 
that  the  early  books  of  the  Bible  came  to  be 
transmitted  in  writing. 

The  history  of  the  Hebrews  is  an  admirable 
illustration  of  this  subject  and  differs  little 
from  that  of  every  noble  race  that  has  given 
its  best  blood  to  the  cause  of  progress  and  en- 
lightenment. There  never  was  a  more  peace- 
able people,  and  yet  they  were  engaged  in 
continual  wars.  Originally  a  roving  Assyrian 
tribe,  the  biblical  tradition  that  they  went  to 
Egypt  to  escape  a  famine  is  likely  enough  to 
be  true.  In  Egypt  they  learned  writing, 
sculpture,  architecture,  and  civil  administra- 
tion. It  is  more  than  probable  that  they  ac- 
quired an  intimation  of  immortality  from  the 
profound  respect  of  the  Egyptians  for  their 
dead.  But  their  spiritual  deity  had  no  place 
among  the  Egyptian  gods,  and  to  realize  this 
in  national  form  they  fought  their  way  to  the 
only  land  where  they  could  found  durable  in- 
stitutions,— the  valley  of  the  Jordan,  midway 
between  Egypt  and  Assyria.  We  learn  from 
two  verses  in  the  book  of  Exodus  that  every 

229 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

Hebrew  man  carried  a  sword,  and  the  worship 
of  the  golden  calf  excited  a  civil  war  among 
them  which  caused  the  loss  of  a  thousand  lives. 
Their  old  chroniclers  give  little  or  no  expla- 
nation for  the  wars  which  they  waged  with 
neighboring  tribes.  These  were  accepted  as 
a  matter  of  course,  for  it  is  not  likely  that 
the  newcomers  occupied  the  fertile  plains  of 
Palestine  without  the  use  of  force.  Joshua 
was  a  fighting  man. 

The  Trojan  War  is  a  famous  instance  of 
what  must  frequently  have  occurred  in  those 
ill-regulated  times  when  two  allied  communi- 
ties went  to  war  on  account  of  an  important 
fugitive  from  justice.  Poetry  gives  the  truth 
of  human  nature,  but  not  of  history.  The  ab- 
duction of  Helen  was  properly  considered  by 
the  Greeks  as  an  international  outrage,  and 
yet  the  Trojans  seemed  to  think  her  justified 
in  deserting  her  husband.  More  common  were 
the  instances  of  warfare  where  self-interest 
and  chivalrous  feeling  conjoined  to  restore  an 
exiled  prince  to  his  hereditary  dominions.  In 
ancient  times  there  was  more  chivalry  than 
self-interest  in  such  adventures,  for  little  could 
be  gained  by  them  save  a  temporary  alliance. 
The  attempts  to  restore  the  Bourbons,  which 

led  to  the  wars  of  Napoleon,  were  of  a  more 

230 


THE  ETHICS  or  WAR 

mercenary  character,  and  it  does  not  look  as 
if  the  experiment  would  ever  be  tried  again. 
Yet  there  may  be  more  of  principle  in  such 
political  movements  than  appears  upon  the 
surface. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  long-continued 
peace  and  the  cultivation  of  the  arts  has  an 
enervating  effect,  and  the  only  antidote  to  this 
is  a  strict  military  organization  such  as  they 
have  in  Prussia.  The  best  period  of  Egyptian 
civilization  came  between  four  thousand  and 
twenty-five  hundred  years  before  the  Chris- 
tian era.  At  the  close  of  that  period  they  were 
conquered  by  an  Asiatic  race  of  nomadic  char- 
acter, possibly  Arabs,  but  more  likely  to  have 
been  Tartars,  who  ruled  them  for  the  next 
seven  or  eight  centuries,  as  we  learn  from 
their  designation  as  shepherd  kings.  Before 
this  conquest,  besides  their  magnificent  archi- 
tecture, the  Egyptians  made  statues  more 
lifelike  than  any  that  the  Greeks  produced 
previous  to  the  Persian  wars.  Their  savage 
conquerors  not  only  brought  this  fine  epoch  to 
an  end,  but  would  seem  to  have  destroyed  the 
germs  of  progress  in  the  Egyptian  people,  for, 
after  they  again  attained  national  indepen- 
dence, their  art  degenerated  into  the  gigantic 
mannerism  by  which  it  is  generally  known, 

231 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

and  their  political  importance  declined  with  it 
until  Cambyses  subjugated  them  in  a  day. 

In  like  manner  the  rude  Dorians  well- 
nigh  extinguished  the  Ionian  civilization  in 
Greece,  and  it  was  five  or  six  centuries  be- 
fore the  noble  Ionian  race  recovered  itself 
again. 

The  same  danger  exists  at  the  present 
time.  Ernest  Renan  warned  Napoleon  III. 
of  it;  and  at  the  Berlin  Congress  of  1878 
Prince  Gortschakoff  made  a  protest  to  the 
powers  against  permitting  the  sale  of  repeat- 
ing fire-arms  to  Tartar  tribes  in  the  heart  of 
Asia,  where,  as  he  said,  "  millions  of  barbar- 
ous men,  the  finest  soldiers  in  the  world,  if 
they  once  became  organized  under  an  able 
leader,  might  destroy  civilization  itself." 
English  opposition  prevented  the  adoption 
of  this  prohibitory  measure;  and  there  is  no 
likelihood  of  any  immediate  peril  from  the 
Tartars,  but  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  Russian 
Premier  uttered  this  warning  against  the  race. 

In  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  an 
army  of  Tartars,  numbering  hundreds  of 
thousands,  conquered  China,  India,  Russia, 
and  Poland;  only  when  they  reached  the  Elbe 
did  they  encounter  any  serious  resistance. 

Nothing  saved  Europe  at  that  time  but  the 

232 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAR 

military  discipline  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
King  of  Bohemia  was  slain,  with  nearly  thirty 
thousand  German  soldiers;  but  they  inflicted 
double  this  loss  on  their  half -naked  opponents, 
and  the  Tartars  decided  not  to  go  any  further 
in  that  direction.  They  maintained  their  con- 
quest of  Russia,  however,  and  exacted  tribute 
from  the  Russians  for  two  hundred  years. 
This  accounts  for  the  arrested  development  of 
the  Russian  people  during  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  also  for  the  present  form  of  the  Russian 
government,  which  has  been  favorable  to  the 
extension  of  the  Russian  Empire,  but  not  ad- 
vantageous to  the  Russians  themselves. 

Professor  William  D.  Whitney,  in  his 
"  Book  on  Language  and  the  Study  of 
Language,"  tells  us  that  the  Russian  lan- 
guage is  the  vehicle  of  civilization  to  North- 
ern and  Central  Asia;  and  those  who  have 
read  Vambery's  "  Travels  in  Central  Asia," 
written  some  six  years  before  the  Russian  oc- 
cupation, must  realize  that  even  Russian  despo- 
tism is  a  beneficent  dispensation  to  the  cruel 
tribes  of  "  Independent  Tartary." 

The  self-complacency  of  the  present  age 
may  not  differ  essentially  from  the  self-com- 
placency of  other  times,  but  it  is  a  dangerous 
mental  condition  which,  like  a  haughty  spirit, 

233 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

goes  before  a  fall.  We  hear  such  expressions 
as  "  the  invention  of  gunpowder  has  forever 
excluded  the  possibility  of  another  conquest 
of  civilization  by  barbarism."  Has  the  inven- 
tion of  gunpowder  made  the  American  Indian 
less  or  more  dangerous  to  the  frontier  settle- 
ments of  the  United  States?  At  all  events, 
the  Russians  are  not  to  be  blamed  for  protect- 
ing themselves,  and  although  they  would  seem 
to  have  overdone  this,  that  is  according  to  the 
inevitable  tendency  of  human  nature  and  a 
growing  people. 

Napoleon  said  at  St.  Helena,  "  Beware  of 
the  Cossack."  The  rapid  growth  of  Russia 
in  the  last  two  hundred  years  has  only  been 
surpassed  by  that  of  the  United  States.  Met- 
ternich  also  took  notice  of  this  as  a  serious 
political  fact.  During  the  Seven  Years'  War 
the  Russian  government  maintained  an  army 
of  about  a  hundred  thousand  men;  now  it 
could  easily  muster  a  million.  Governments, 
like  other  corporations,  merely  consider  their 
own  interest  and  take  little  thought  concern- 
ing the  interest  of  others.  A  statesman  who 
considers  both  sides  of  a  subject  is  commonly 
looked  upon  as  unpractical,  and  is  always  in 
danger  of  being  replaced  by  a  more  narrow- 
minded  man.  It  is  often  difficult  enough  for 

234 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAR 

a  government  to  do  justice  within  its  own  do- 
mains, and  outside  of  that  generally  impos- 
sible. Party  passion,  commercial  greed,  and 
a  false  patriotism,  which  should  be  called  na- 
tional vanity,  have  frequently  hurried  govern- 
ments or  ministries  against  their  will  into 
injurious  attacks  upon  their  neighbors'  pos- 
sessions. Gladstone  received  a  most  ungrate- 
ful return  for  his  high-minded  treatment  of 
the  "  Alabama"  claims, — a  large  portion  of 
his  own  party  repudiated  him  for  it, — and  his 
surrender  of  a  few  unimportant  islands  to 
Greece  brought  even  greater  obloquy  upon 
him.*  Political  parties  are  no  more  to  be 
trusted  than  dynasties;  and  the  republican 
government  that  stands  in  a  fair  and  honor- 
able light  one  year  may  be  smirched  by  a  cov- 
etous expediency  the  next.  It  is  only  fear  of 
the  law  that  prevents  a  large  portion  of  man- 
kind from  committing  crimes  and  misdemean- 
ors; and  it  is  only  the  pressure  of  external 
forces  which  in  the  long  run  will  restrain  a 
government  from  overstepping  its  bounda- 
ries. Where  strong,  vigorous  nations  are 
crowded  together  as  they  are  in  Europe,  it 


*  He  wished  to  sue  his  opponents  for  libel,  but  the  lawyers 
warned  him  that  no  English  jury  could  be  trusted  with  his  case. 

235 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

is  only  political  foresight  and  prudence  which 
can  prevent  them  from  going  to  war. 

This  is  why  semi-civilized  Russia  is  so  dan- 
gerous to  Western  Europe.  Since  the  time 
of  Nicholas,  the  Russians  have  been  fortunate 
in  a  succession  of  peace-loving  Tsars ;  but  the 
tide  may  change  at  any  time,  and  a  military 
genius  on  the  throne  of  the  Romanoffs  might 
have  a  terrible  effect  on  European  politics.  If 
the  English  are  afraid  of  Russia,  there  is  still 
more  reason  why  the  Germans,  why  the  Aus- 
trians  should  fear  her.  If  the  Russian  gov- 
ernment maintains  an  army  of  a  million  sol- 
diers, Germany  and  Austria  have  to  support 
not  less  than  six  hundred  thousand  apiece,  and 
France  quite  as  many.  What  will  be  the  final 
evolution  of  the  immense  armaments  and  in- 
creasing public  debts  of  Europe  is  a  problem 
for  a  long-headed  thinker;  but  at  present  there 
appears  to  be  no  remedy  for  them.  The  more 
profoundly  we  study  history,  the  more  evident 
it  becomes  that  human  affairs,  generally  speak- 
ing, must  be  as  they  are,  and  could  not  very 
well  have  been  otherwise. 

I  think  it  has  been  hereby  proved  sufficiently 
that  military  organization  was  intended  origi- 
nally and  fundamentally  for  the  protection  of 
civilization  against  barbarism;  but  if  there  is 

236 


THE  ETHICS  or  WAR 

need  of  further  argument,  it  may  easily  be  ob- 
tained in  the  history  of  ancient  Greece.  Next 
to  the  Romans,  the  Greeks  were  the  finest  sol- 
diers of  antiquity,  and  yet,  with  insignificant 
exceptions,  they  never  attempted  to  make  con- 
quests. We  have  the  statement  of  Thucydides 
that  there  were  no  serious  wars  in  Greece  for 
at  least  five  hundred  years  before  the  Persian 
invasion,  excepting  the  two  Messenian  wars; 
and  yet,  when  the  Persian  invasion  came,  the 
Greeks  were  in  such  good  fighting  condition 
that  they  completely  defeated  an  enemy  of 
four  times  their  own  number.  It  is  probable 
enough  that  there  was  plenty  of  fighting  and 
skirmishing  in  Greece  previous  to  that  time 
which  we  hear  nothing  about,  and,  though 
this  may  have  been  an  evil  itself,  it  helped 
to  protect  the  Greeks  from  vastly  greater 
evil. 

That  military  preparation  does  not  neces- 
sarily tend  to  produce  war  becomes  evident 
from  the  following  computation:  I  think  it 
will  be  admitted  that  Prussia  is  the  first  mili- 
tary power  in  Europe,  and  that  no  other  na- 
tion has  developed  the  science  of  warfare  to 
so  high  a  degree.  It  was  the  same  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century;  and  yet,  if  we  reckon  the 
number  of  wars  in  which  Prussia  has  been  en- 

237 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

gaged  during  the  past  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
we  find  it  much  less  than  that  of  other  great 
nations.  Commencing  with  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  the  Prussians  have  made  in  that  time  six- 
teen campaigns,  occupying  rather  less  than 
thirteen  years;  the  English  and  French  have 
each  made  about  forty  campaigns;  the  Rus- 
sians and  Austrians  about  thirty;  while  the 
United  States  of  America  has  been  at  war 
fully  twenty-three  years,  if  we  include  the  colo- 
nial period.  It  is  well  known  that  Frederick 
the  Great  preserved  peace  in  Central  Europe 
from  1762  until  1783,  and  the  present  German 
government  may  be  credited  with  an  equally 
pacific  influence.  The  geographical  position 
of  Prussia  is  not  especially  favorable  to  a  pol- 
icy of  peace  and  independence,  but  rather  the 
reverse. 

The  genesis  of  a  war  is  the  most  interesting 
of  all  historical  studies,  but  modern  historians 
have  devoted  little  more  attention  to  this  line 
of  work  than  the  old  Hebrew  chroniclers.  It 
too  often  happens  that  a  historian  sacrifices 
what  he  honestly  believes  to  be  the  truth,  and 
represents  an  international  difficulty  in  a  light 
as  favorable  as  possible  to  his  own  govern- 
ment. Immense  mischief  is  done  in  this  man- 
ner, and  quite  as  much  by  the  superficial  prac- 

238 


THE  ETHICS  or  WAR 

tice  of  telling  half  truths  instead  of  whole 
ones. 

At  a  recent  university  celebration  the  orator 
of  the  day,  after  attacking  Csesar,  Frederick, 
Napoleon,  and  other  great  generals,  made  the 
statement,  which  might  occur  to  any  one,  that 
in  a  war  between  two  nations  one  of  the  parties 
at  least  must  be  in  the  wrong.  At  the  first 
glance  this  would  seem  to  be  true  enough,  but 
a  deeper  insight  into  the  working  of  politics 
shows  us  that  in  many  instances  the  apparent 
right  and  wrong  of  a  war  or  rebellion  are  so 
nearly  balanced  that  the  contending  parties  are 
not  to  be  blamed  if  each  believes  itself  in  the 
right  and  the  other  in  the  wrong;  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  in  nearly  all  wars  both  parties 
do  believe  this.  If  a  man  thinks  he  is  in  the 
right,  it  is  the  same  to  him  whether  he  really  is 
so  or  not,  though  it  may  not  be  the  same  to 
others. 

Let  us  consider,  for  instance,  the  war  of 
separation  of  the  American  colonies  from  the 
British  government.  The  occasion  of  that 
revolution  was  the  imposition  of  new  and  un- 
usual taxes  by  the  British  Parliament,  and 
nothing  is  more  likely  to  stir  up  rebellion  than 
such  a  measure.  The  taxes  were  light  and  not 
unjust  in  their  way,  for  if  all  other  subjects 

239 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

of  the  crown  were  obliged  to  pay  similar  dues, 
it  would  seem  only  fair  that  the  Americans 
should  bear  their  portion.  It  was  a  strong 
point  for  the  Americans,  however,  that  they 
never  had  been  taxed  except  for  their  own  lo- 
cal governments,  and  they  considered  it  illegal 
to  be  taxed  by  a  parliament  in  which  they  were 
not  represented.  The  English  press  replied  to 
this  that  there  was  a  first  time  for  everything; 
that  the  Americans  ought  to  pay  for  military 
protection ;  and  that  America  was  too  far  away 
for  practical  representation  in  the  British  gov- 
ernment. To  this  the  Americans  replied  that 
they  were  fully  able  to  protect  themselves,  and 
if  they  were  too  far  off  to  be  represented  in 
Parliament,  the  British  government  was  too 
far  away  to  regulate  American  affairs  in  a 
judicious  manner.  What  precipitated  the  con- 
flict was  the  presence  of  the  British  troops, 
which  made  the  colonies  feel  as  if  they  were 
no  longer  a  free  people. 

Beneath  this  argument  there  was  a  strong 
undercurrent  of  conviction  among  the  colonists 
that  the  time  had  come  for  Americans  to  ad- 
minister their  own  affairs,  and  that  the  British 
government  could  no  longer  be  trusted  to  deal 
with  American  interests.  Such  wars  as  this, 
the  wars  of  Napoleon,  and  the  war  of  the  Long 

240 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAR 

Parliament  in  England,  seem  more  like  great 
convulsions  of  nature  than  affairs  directed  by 
any  human  agency.  The  wars  of  Edward  III. 
in  France  and  of  Louis  XIV.  in  Germany 
seem  to  have  been  the  result  of  personal  ambi- 
tion; yet  they  may  have  resulted  from  the 
existence  of  an  expansive  force  in  England 
and  France  which  could  not  be  easily  con- 
trolled. The  great  problem  of  government  is 
always  how  to  give  occupation  to  an  increasing 
population.  The  Opium  War  of  1842  is  cer- 
tainly a  blot  on  the  history  of  England,  and  so 
is  the  Seven  Years'  War  on  that  of  France  and 
Austria.  The  last  was  caused  by  the  enven- 
omed resentment  of  two  villanous  women,  the 
Pompadour  and  the  Tzarina  Elizabeth,  against 
Frederick  the  Great.  There  are  many  who 
place  President  Polk's  invasion  of  Mexico  in 
the  same  category. 

Even  intelligent  persons  are  easily  blinded 
by  preconceived  theories  of  politics  or  morals. 
Hay  and  Nicolay,  in  their  encyclopaedic  biogra- 
phy of  Lincoln,  condemn  John  Brown's  Har- 
per's Ferry  invasion  on  the  ground  that  in  a 
republic  all  reforms  should  proceed  according 
to  law  and  order.  Doubtless  all  reforms  under 
any  sort  of  government  ought  to  proceed  ac- 
cording to  law  and  order  if  possible,  but  as 
6  241 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

a  matter  of  fact  private  attempts  at  reform 
and  popular  revolutions  have  always  been  more 
frequent  in  republican  institutions  than  under 
other  forms  of  government,  because  republi- 
cans are  more  independent  and  more  likely  to 
take  the  law  into  their  own  hands.  How  many 
revolutions  have  there  been  in  Mexico  and  the 
South  American  republics ;  and  are  we  to  sup- 
pose that  all  these  were  without  cause  or  rea- 
son? Indeed,  has  it  not  been  decided  that 
Lincoln's  emancipation  proclamation  was  is- 
sued contrary  to  constitutional  right?  If  the 
right  to  liberate  the  slaves  was  vested  in  any 
branch  of  the  government,  it  was  Congress  and 
not  the  President  that  had  the  power  to  do  it; 
and  this  was  the  course  of  procedure  pursued 
by  the  English  government  in  a  similar  case. 
John  Brown's  invasion  of  Virginia  was  cer- 
tainly contrary  to  law  and  order;  but  it  is 
becoming  a  recognized  historical  fact  that  all 
popular  revolutions  are  preceded  by  similar 
outbreaks,  which  sometimes  take  one  form  and 
sometimes  another,  and  have  a  decided  value  in 
preparing  men's  minds  for  the  coming  strug- 
gle and  in  bracing  them  up  to  meet  the  occa- 
sion.* 

*  See  my  reply  to  Hay  and  Nicolay  in  Von  Hoist's  "  John 
Brown." 

242 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAR 

It  is  as  the  hand-maid  of  revolution  that  war 
becomes  a  civilizing  force.  There  are  those 
who  consider  all  revolutions  unnecessary,  and 
believe  that  the  world  would  be  a  great  deal 
better  if  it  once  should  subside  into  a  stereo- 
typed Chinese  condition.  Being  fossilized 
themselves,  they  have  no  desire  to  return  to  a 
life  of  which  they  are  only  slightly  conscious; 
and  there  is  no  occasion  for  us  to  consider  them. 
Revolution  is  a  word  never  to  be  spoken  lightly, 
rarely  to  be  thought  of;  but  political  revolu- 
tions are  indispensable  to  social  progress,  and 
Americans,  at  least,  will  not  be  apt  to  deny  this, 
for  had  they  never  occurred,  we  should  be 
merely  appendages  to  European  nations. 

Neither  have  peaceable  revolutions  hereto- 
fore proved  to  be  of  much  effect:  the  separa- 
tion of  the  South  American  colonies  from 
Spain  would  seem  in  accordance  with  peace 
principles,  and  what  has  been  the  result?  a 
string  of  small  republics  stretching  from 
Guiana  to  Patagonia,  without  stability  at 
home  or  influence  abroad.  It  was  the  con- 
flict against  the  British  government  which 
welded  the  Anglo-Saxon  colonies  together 
and  gave  a  manly,  vigorous  character  to  the 
true  American.  Only  those  lessons  reach  the 
heart  of  human  nature  which  are  learned  by 

243 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

heart, — lessons  written  in  fire  and  inculcated 
with  self-sacrifice.  The  revolution  of  1848  in 
France  was  comparatively  peaceable,  but  it 
only  resulted  in  a  great  sensational  confusion ; 
while  the  counter-revolution  of  the  Bonapart- 
ists  placed  Louis  Napoleon  on  the  throne, 
where  he  would  have  remained  until  death  if 
he  had  only  let  Bismarck  alone.  Meanwhile 
the  Prussian  people  fought  out  a  sanguinary 
struggle  for  constitutional  government  in  the 
streets  of  Berlin,  and  won  it. 

Most  of  the  wars  that  have  taken  place  dur- 
ing the  last  fifty  years  have  had  a  revolutionary 
character,  and  few  will  deny  that  their  result 
has  been  favorable  to  progress  and  civilization. 
The  separation  of  the  Southern  from  the 
Northern  States  in  this  country  might  not  have 
been  so  great  an  evil  to  the  latter  as  it  would 
have  been  to  the  former.  Both  whites  and 
negroes  are  much  happier  and  better  in  every 
way  now  than  they  were  in  the  days  of  master 
and  slave.  How  could  Italian  unity  have  been 
realized  and  the  Italians  liberated  from  Aus- 
trian tyranny  but  for  the  Franco-Austrian  war 
of  1858  ?  The  war  between  Russia  and  Turkey 
in  1877  did  not  result  so  much  to  the  advantage 
of  Russia  as  to  those  smaller  states, — Bulgaria, 

Servia,  and  Roumelia,  for  they  thus  escaped, 

244 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAB 

after  centuries  of  humiliation,  from  the  de- 
grading despotism  of  the  Turks.  The  Russian 
ladies  who  served  in  the  Bulgarian  hospitals, 
or  the  French  Zouaves  who  stormed  the  hill  of 
Solf erino,  would  have  scoffed  at  the  idea  that 
European  soldiers  are  food  for  powder. 

The  most  remarkable  instance  of  this  kind, 
however,  was  Bismarck's  war  against  Austria 
in  1866,  by  which  the  vanquished  obtained  even 
greater  advantages  than  the  victors.  It  was 
much  for  Prussia  to  gain  the  territory  that 
separated  the  two  divisions  of  her  nation;  but 
Austria  not  only  obtained  a  constitutional  gov- 
ernment, which  the  people  at  Vienna  especially 
longed  for,  but  was  also  released  in  this  way 
from  the  tyrannous  concordat  with  Pius  IX. 
At  the  same  time  the  Hungarians  obtained  the 
quasi-independence  which  they  so  eagerly  de- 
sired, and  the  Venetians  were  restored  to  their 
beloved  Italy.  It  was  the  one  thing  needed  in 
Europe.  Even  the  campaign  of  1870  re- 
sulted in  a  republican  government  for  France, 
though,  it  must  be  admitted,  at  rather  an  exor- 
bitant price. 

The  recent  war  in  China  illustrates  how  im- 
possible it  sometimes  is  to  prevent  these  col- 
lisions of  nations.  The  secret  of  that  war  is 
to  be  found  in  the  recesses  of  the  Chinese  char- 

245 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

acter,  of  which,  thus  far,  Christian  races  know 
but  little.  The  emeute  which  preceded  it  was 
a  conservative  revolution  in  favor  of  idolatry, 
and  the  only  choice  left  to  the  great  powers 
was  either  to  suppress  it  by  force  or  to  abandon 
all  intercourse  with  the  celestial  empire,  and 
this  would  be  more  unfortunate  for  the  Chinese 
than  for  other  more  civilized  nations. 

The  truth  is  that  there  are  problems  repeat- 
edly occurring  in  human  affairs  which  can  only 
be  solved  in  this  manner, — Gordian  knots  which 
have  to  be  cut  by  the  sword.  Emerson,  who 
was  a  better  logician  than  some  of  his  commen- 
tators, understood  this  fact  when  he  wrote : 

"  Let  war  and  trade  and  creeds  and  song 
Blend,  ripen  race  on  race." 

America  is  a  witness  that  it  is  only  by  con- 
quest that  races  can  be  fused  together;  as,  for 
instance,  the  Saxons,  Normans,  and  Danes  in 
England.  Battle-fields  represent  the  acme  of 
human  concentration  and  develop  the  noblest 
qualities  of  heart  and  mind.  The  Prussians 
say  it  does  every  man  good  to  be  a  soldier. 
Even  their  poets  and  artists  say  this ;  and  the 
American  public  is  not  far  wrong  in  its  admi- 
ration for  military  genius,  for  nothing  is  more 

rare  than  the  strength  of  character  and  intel- 

246 


THE  ETHICS  OF  WAB, 

lectual  power  which  are  required  to  make  a 
great  general.  To  be  wise  in  one's  study  is  not 
always  easy,  but  to  be  wise  in  a  great  emer- 
gency is  the  most  difficult  of  all  things. 

It  may  fairly  be  asked  in  this  connection 
how  we  are  to  distinguish  between  a  sound, 
healthy  peace  and  one  which  is  like  a  house 
built  of  rotten  timber?  No  rule  can  be  given 
for  this;  it  must  always  remain  a  question  of 
judgment.  Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to 
do  enough  and  not  to  overdo,  and  yet  we  are 
constantly  obliged  to  make  the  attempt.  So 
it  is  in  politics ;  and  perhaps  the  best  test  of  a 
revolutionary  movement  is  the  character  of  the 
men  who  are  concerned  in  it.  From  the  time 
that  the  French  Republicans  discarded  Lafay- 
ette they  went  rapidly  to  the  worse.  It  may 
also  be  affirmed  that  when  a  revolution  repeats 
itself,  as  in  the  case  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Au- 
gustus, it  is  founded  in  the  inevitable  order  of 
events  and  could  not  be  prevented.  We  do  not 
hesitate  to  condemn  Shay's  Rebellion,  and  the 
Whiskey  Rebellion  which  was  put  down  by 
Washington,  because  they  originated  in  mean 
and  sordid  motives;  but  the  Sepoy  revolt  in 
India  accomplished  much  good  in  a  horrible 
way,  although  it  was  suppressed.  Life  is  a 
perpetual  conflict,  and  as  this  conflict  deepens, 

247 


TRUE  REPUBLICANISM 

so  that  great  numbers  range  themselves  on 
either  side,  war  naturally  results.  As  Goethe 
says: 

"  He  alone  deserves  his  freedom  and  his  life 
Who  daily  conquers  it  in  strife." 

This  is  the  solution  of  the  principles  of  popu- 
lation, of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  of 
many  other  problems  in  moral  and  political 
science. 


248 


APPENDIX 


THE  tyranny  of  democracy  is  frequently  exhibited 
at  town-meetings, — especially  those  in  the  suburbs  of 
large  cities.  I  will  give  two  instances  of  this  tyranny 
out  of  a  large  number  that  have  come  within  my 
range. 

Mr.  S.,  a  philanthropic  gentleman  in  the  town  of 
M.,  suddenly  died.  Next  to  his  estate  there  lived 
a  man,  named  W.,  who  kept  a  trotting  park, — a  low, 
brutal  fellow,  who  coveted  a  piece  of  avenue  belong- 
ing to  Mr.  S.  which  passed  by  his  land.  Soon  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  S.  the  trotting-park  man  applied  to 
the  town  authorities  to  lay  out  this  piece  of  avenue  as 
a  public  road,  on  the  ground  that  he  wished  to  build 
cottages  on  his  own  side  of  it.  This  they  did,  al- 
though W.'s  land  was  unsuitable  for  building,  and 
their  action  was  ratified  in  town-meeting, — every  re- 
spectable person  in  the  community  voting  against  it. 
No  cottages  were  ever  built  on  the  avenue,  and  the 
affair  was  practically  a  transfer  of  property  from 
one  person  to  another. 

A  citizen  of  New  York,  Mr.  P.,  owned  an  estate  on 
the  Hudson  River,  in  front  of  which  there  was  a  row 
of  fine  maple-trees.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  road 
were  some  tenement  houses  owned  by  a  liquor  dealer, 
who  was  determined  to  make  Mr.  P.  purchase  them  at 
a  high  figure.  He  accordingly  intrigued  with  the 
civil  authorities  to  have  the  road  widened  in  such  a 

251 


APPENDIX 

manner  as  to  cut  down  Mr.  P.'s  maples,  and  his  ten- 
ants gave  him  strong  support.  No  appeal  from  the 
decision  of  the  authorities  was  possible,  although  the 
road  was  already  forty  feet  in  width,  and  Mr.  P.  was 
finally  obliged  to  make  terms  with  the  liquor  dealer  or 
lose  his  trees. 

The  old  New  England  town-meeting  is  an  in- 
effective town  government  wherever  there  is  a  large 
laboring  population;  for  the  town  authorities  are 
obliged  to  pander  to  this  element,  and  find  work  for 
it,  in  order  to  keep  themselves  in  office. 


A  statement  similar  to  Lincoln's  is  also  to  be  found 
in  Locke's  essays,  page  217. 

"  Though  I  have  said  above  (2)  '  That  all  men  by 
nature  are  equal,'  I  cannot  be  supposed  to  understand 
all  sorts  of  '  equality.'  Age  or  virtue  may  give  men  a 
just  precedency.  Excellency  of  parts  and  merit  may 
place  others  above  the  common  level.  Birth  may  sub- 
ject some,  and  alliance  or  benefits  others,  to  pay  an 
observance  to  those  to  whom  nature,  gratitude,  or 
other  respects,  may  have  made  it  due." 

c 

Senator  Hoar  deserves  great  honor  for  his  inde- 
pendent position;  and,  apart  from  any  principles 
he  professes,  his  ground  is  that  of  a  broad  and  far- 
sighted  statesman.  The  Philippine  Islands  might 

252 


APPENDIX 

prove  a  valuable  acquisition  if  we  could  secure  a  peace- 
ful possession  of  them;  and,  if  we  could  govern  the 
Filipinos  better  than  they  can  govern  themselves, 
we  might  presume  to  attempt  such  government;  but 
neither  of  these  eventualities  is  at  all  probable.  The 
Filipinos  are  not  Spaniards,  but  they  contain  a  large 
Spanish  element,  which  makes  them  difficult  to  deal 
with.  Then  the  difference  of  language  adds  to  the 
perplexity  of  the  situation.  Two  years  of  warfare 
have  made  the  American  name  hateful  to  them;  and 
it  seems  likely  enough  that  a  force  of  ten  thousand 
soldiers  will  be  indefinitely  required  to  maintain  order 
— at  an  expense  of  five  millions  a  year.  Probably 
President  McKinley  and  his  journalistic  adviser  were 
never  more  surprised  than  when  they  found  that  the 
Filipinos  did  not  wish  to  be  united  to  "  the  land  of 
the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave."  It  is  possible 
that  a  little  tentative  diplomacy  in  the  beginning 
might  have  averted  the  war ;  but  since  the  summer  of 
1898  our  foreign  politics  have  been  decidedly  British. 
Meanwhile,  the  Sandwich  Islands,  which  are  really 
a  valuable  possession,  and  naturally  belong  to  the 
United  States,  have  been  ruined  for  the  time  being 
by  undiplomatic  treatment  of  the  Japanese  laborers, 
which  the  government  is  trying  to  atone  for  by  plac- 
ing a  bounty  on  emigration.  Affairs  in  Porto  Rico 
are  in  a  dismal  condition. 


253 


APPENDIX 


D 

The  morale  of  the  civil  service  in  this  navy-yard  was 
what  might  be  expected  from  such  conditions.  The 
civil  engineer,  a  man  of  ability  in  his  way,  was  brought 
up  in  a  rum  shop,  but  so  long  as  he  lived  in  the  country 
he  was  a  fairly  well-behaved  man.  When,  however, 
the  department  ordered  him  to  occupy  a  house  in  the 
navy-yard  he  fell  in  with  bad  company,  and  went 
rapidly  to  ruin.  Within  four  years  he  was  a  dead 
man,  and  his  nephew  shared  a  similar  fate.  Two 
others  on  the  civil  list  attempted  to  sequestrate  a 
load  of  old  copper,  but  their  plan  was  detected  and 
they  fled  to  Canada.  The  chief  accountant  was  ar- 
rested and  tried  for  setting  fire  to  a  store-house  in 
which  he  had  insured  goods. 

In  some  respects  the  government  was  very  mean. 
The  commandant  could  not  obtain  a  Brussels  carpet 
for  his  office  until  the  civil  engineer  explained  to  him 
that  a  bill  for  labor  and  materials — in  which  the 
value  of  neither  was  specified — was  always  accepted 
at  Washington. 

E 

Emerson's  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  the  American 
politician  appears  to  have  been  eliminated  from  the 
final  edition  of  his  Old  South  Church  address,  but  the 
following  extracts  are  sufficiently  severe: 

"  Our  great  men  succumb  so  far  to  the  forms  of 
the  day  as  to  peril  their  integrity  for  the  sake  of 

254 


APPENDIX 

adding  to  the  weight  of  their  personal  character  the 
authority  of  office,  or  making  a  real  government  titu- 
lar. Our  politics  are  full  of  adventurers,  who,  having 
by  education  and  social  innocence  a  good  repute  in 
the  State,  break  away  from  the  law  of  honesty  and 

think  they  can  afford  to  join  the  devil's  party." 
******* 

"  Parties  keep  the  old  names,  but  exhibit  a  sur- 
prising fugacity  in  creeping  out  of  one  snake-skin 
into  another  of  equal  ignominy  and  lubricity,  and  the 
grasshopper  on  the  turret  of  Faneuil  Hall  gives  a 

proper  hint  of  the  men  below." 

******* 

"  The  record  of  the  election  now  and  then  alarms 
people  by  the  all  but  unanimous  choice  of  a  rogue  and 
brawler.  But  how  was  it  done?  What  lawless  mob 
burst  into  the  polls  and  threw  in  their  hundreds  of 
ballots  in  defiance  of  the  magistrates?  This  was  done 
by  the  very  men  you  know, — the  mildest,  most  sensible, 
best-natured  people.  The  only  account  of  this  is, 
that  they  have  been  scared  or  warped  into  some  asso- 
ciation in  their  minds  of  the  candidate  with  the  in- 
terest of  their  trade  or  of  their  property. 

"  Whilst  each  cabal  urges  its  candidate,  and  at  last 
brings,  with  cheers  and  street  demonstrations,  men 
whose  names  are  a  knell  to  all  hope  of  progress,  the 
good  and  wise  are  hidden  in  their  active  retirements, 
and  are  quite  out  of  question." 

Emerson  never  could  understand  that  these  public 
evils  resulted  directly  from  the  Jeffersonian  doctrines 

in  which  he  believed. 

255 


INDEX 


A 

Adams  and  Jackson,  57,  121. 

Adams,  Charles  F.,  170. 

Adams,  John,  136. 

Alabama  claims,  235. 

Alexander  the  Great,  108. 

American  fires,  85. 

American.  Indians,  23,  199,  218. 

Ames,  Fisher,  120. 

Andrew,  Governor,  plan  of  reconstruction,  209;   quarrel 

with  Sumner,  210. 
Annapolis  Convention,  117. 
Architecture,  56,  82. 
Aristotle's  "  Politics/'  15. 
Arthur,  President,  141. 
Austrian  empire,  89. 

B 

Berea  College,  221. 

Biographies  of  Lincoln,  147,  148. 

Bismarck,  48,  109. 

Booth,  Wilkes,  179. 

"  Boss  System,"  60. 

Brown,  John,  150. 

Buchanan,  Curtis's,  193. 

Buchanan,  President,  191. 

Burr,  Aaron,  138. 

17  257 


INDEX 
c 

Caesar,  Julius  and  Augustus,  247. 

Caesarism,  105. 

Calhoun,  197. 

Calumny  in  politics,  130. 

Cameron,  Simon,  160. 

"  Camillus  papers,"  133. 

Catholicism,  88,  90,  104. 

Chain  of  destruction,  225. 

Chase,  S.  P.,  166,  209. 

Chicago  Convention  in  I860,  145. 

City  charters,  18. 

Civil  Rights  Bill,  219. 

Civil  service,  254. 

Common  law,  49. 

Confederate  States,  197. 

Constitution  of  Cleisthenes,  16. 

Constitution  of  United  States,  11,  13,  14,  37,  203,  216. 

Constitutional  amendments,  178,  214—16. 

Contraband  of  war,  176. 

Corrupt  practices,  57,  169,  217. 

Crime,  52. 

Gushing,  Caleb,  219- 

D 

Darwinian  evolution,  23. 

Davis,  David,  166. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  26. 

Democracy,  18,  50,  102;    in  France,  55. 

Demosthenes,  92. 

De  Tocqueville,  142. 

Distinction  of  classes,  34. 

Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  157. 

258 


INDEX 
E 

Educational  suffrage,  99. 
Emancipation  proclamation,  175,  242. 
Embargo  of  1806,  40. 
Emerson,  146,  158,  247,  254. 
English  suffrage,  98. 
Evarts,  WiUiam  E.,  63. 

F 

Fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  46. 

"Federalist,"  the,  119. 

Federalists,  14. 

Feudal  system,  46. 

Fifteenth  Amendment,  215,  216. 

Filmer,  Sir  Robert,  22. 

Foundation  of  politics,  42. 

Fourteenth  Amendment,  214. 

Francia's  government  of  Paraguay,  16. 

Frederick  the  Great,  84. 

Free  cities,  17. 

French  Directory,  39. 

French  philosophers,  123. 

French  Revolution,  124. 

G 

Gettysburg  address,  179. 

Gladstone's  eulogy  of  Davis,  41 ;   his  magnanimity,  235. 

Goethe,  248. 

Good  society,  35. 

Grant,  General,  142,  167;   administration,  169;   politics, 

216. 

Greek  militia,  237. 
Greek  politics,  117. 
Greeley,  Horace,  159. 

259 


INDEX 
H 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  38,  54,  97,  107;  calumny  of,  110, 
118;  character,  139;  conflict  with  Jefferson,  125; 
duel  with  Burr,  137;  enemies,  109;  financial 
policy,  122;  frankness,  112;  hereditary  rights, 
128;  magnanimity,  136;  precocity,  114;  Washing- 
ton's opinion  of,  113. 

Harper's  Ferry  invasion,  242. 

Hartford  State-House,  83. 

Hegel,  23. 

Herndon's  biography,  146. 

Historical  precedents,  202. 

Hoist,  Professor  Von,  193,  194. 

House  of  Commons,  19- 

I 

He  a  Vache,  202,  222. 
Imprisonment  for  disloyalty,  165. 
Individuality  in  politics,  64. 

J 

Jay  treaty,  134. 

Jefferson's  idea  of  Hamilton,  126. 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  26,  27,  111,  122,  128. 
Jewish  government,  45. 
Johnson,  President,  204,  215. 
Justification  of  conquest,  47 ;  of  government,  36,  42. 

K 

Kansas  troubles,  156. 
Kant,  20. 

Kentucky,  15;  character,  143. 
Knights  of  the  Garter,  17. 
Ku-Klux  outrages,  211. 

260 


INDEX 


Lamon's  biography  of  Lincoln,  147. 

Law  of  nature,  21,  25. 

Limited  suffrage,  94. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  31,  141;  anecdotes,  166;  cabinet, 
162;  Cooper  Institute  address,  158;  compromise, 
161;  debates  with  Douglas,  156;  family,  142; 
mistakes,  201,  172;  politics,  152;  purity,  169; 
religious  views,  179;  true  genius,  178;  virtues, 
143;  as  a  lawyer,  149;  revolutionist,  153;  an 
orator,  150;  on  Divine  inspiration,  177. 

Locke,  John,  20,  22,  24,  38,  43,  107,  252. 

Louis  XIV.,  197. 

Lowell,  James  R.,  146. 

Lynchings,  52. 

M 

Macaulay's  controversy  with  Mill,  12. 
Machine  politics,  61. 
Madison,  120. 
McClellan,  General,  168. 
Mexico,  213,  242. 
Military  despotism,  44. 
Military  preparation,  237. 
Mill,  J.  S.,  63. 
Miranda's  scheme,  135. 
Mississippi  politics,  51,  81. 
Monarchical  government,  92. 
Municipal  government,  101. 

N 

Napoleon,  115,  135,  234. 
Napoleon,  Louis,  212. 

261 


INDEX 

Navy-yards,  254. 

Negro  suffrage,  98,  100,  216;   equality,  218,  220;   regi- 
ments, 176. 
Nero,  108. 

Nicolay  and  Hay,  147,  164. 
"Nip  and  tuck,"  story  of,  167. 
Northern  States,  200. 
Nullification,  30. 

O 

Opium  war,  241. 
Orators,  62. 
Oratory,  96. 

P 

Paine,  Thos.,  126. 

Parsons,  Professor  Theophilus,  207,  209. 
Peace  movement,  224. 
Pericles,  84. 

Philippine  Islands,  48,  252. 
PhiUips,  Wendell,  151,  160,  206. 
Plato,  34. 

Political  economy,  132. 
Popular  outrages,  51. 
Primitive  state  of  society,  43. 
Prussians,  238. 

R 

Reason  and  order,  226. 
Reconstruction,  202. 
Reid,  Whitelaw,  103. 
Reproductive  power,  226. 
Republican  party,  211. 
Revolution,  243. 
Roman  comitia,  19. 
Rousseau's  "  Social  Compact/'  20. 
Russian  language,  233;   government,  234,  236. 

262 


INDEX 

s 

Seelye,  an  English  professor,  141. 

Self-complacency,  233. 

Senate  of  United  States,  59. 

Servant  girls,  87. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  30,  123,  159,  180;    foreign  policy,  198, 

201,  205;   politics,  192;  tergiversations,  206. 
Sherman,  General  W.  T.,  224. 
Socialism,  24. 
Socrates,  29. 

Southern  planters,  201,  222. 
Spain,  war  with,  48. 
Spanish  government,  104. 
"  Spoils  of  office/'  58. 
Stearns,  George  L.,  169,  206. 


Tammany  ring,  97,  219. 
Tartars,  danger  from,  91. 
Ten  commandments,  49. 
Texas,  annexation  of,  154. 
Tilden,  Samuel  J.,  213. 
Times,  the  London,  56. 
Trent  outrage,  175. 
TrumbuU,  180,  203. 
Tucker,  John,  170. 
Tuskegee  College,  221. 
Tyranny  of  democracy,  251. 


V 

Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions,  129. 

263 


INDEX 

w 

War,  223,  et  seq.,  genesis  of,  228,  239;  of  1866,  245; 
in  China,  245;  of  Independence,  239,  244;  wars 
of  Louis  XIV.,  241 ;  of  the  Roses,  228. 

Washington,  Booker  T.,  221. 

Washington,  George,  his  administration,  121;  farewell 
address,  114;  support  of  Hamilton,  127. 

Washington  architecture,  83. 

Western  superiority,  193. 

West  Point  Academy,  131. 

Whiskey  Rebellion,  39. 

Wilmot  Proviso,  153. 

Wilson,  Senator,  176,  144. 

Woman  suffrage,  33,  93. 


THE    END 


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